Strong pitching carried Gators to opening win
OMAHA, Neb. — The formula still works.
Great pitching and just enough offense late Monday night led Florida to a 4-3 win against Louisiana State in Game 1 of the College World Series Final. The Gators (51-19) faced the Tigers (52-19) late Tuesday night for the first national championship in school history.
Sophomore Brady Singer set a personal and CWS finals record with 12 strikeouts and allowed three earned runs in seven innings Monday night. He allowed four runs in 16 innings this season against the Tigers.
“Wewent up against who I believe to be the best pitcher in the SEC since I’ve been the coach at LSU,” Tigers’ coach Paul Mainieri said. “I think the guy will be the first pick in the draft next year.”
Singer was stellar through five innings Monday. He gave up consecutive singles to start the fourth, but then struck out the next three hitters, all on offspeed pitches. But he couldn’t get out of the sixth unscathed. Antoine Duplantis’ solo home run to right started the scoring, and later, Beau Jordan drove in a run with a twoout single, cutting the Florida lead to 3-2.
The Tigers made it exciting in the eighth.
Greg Deichmann doubled and later scored, but the latter was an equally critical play for Florida. Josh Smith’s RBI-single turned into an out at second base as centerfielder Nick Horvath, who entered the game that inning, threw out Smith on a tight play.
“I was aggressive to the ball so I knew I had a shot. I got it out ofmy glove quick,
and it was on the money,” Horvath said.
Smith pounded his helmet into the ground and lingered in disbelief before heading to the dugout.
“The ball beat him, but I don’t know if Josh got in there with his swim move or not,” Mainieri said.
Michael Byrne, an Orlando Olympia High graduate, did not allow another base runner in, adding tohis school-record19 saves.
Coach Kevin O’Sullivan used the same lineup he did in Saturday’s 3-0 win against TCU. That included Dalton Guthrie batting second and hitting second despite suffering back spasms that forced in out of Saturday’s game.
Guthrie appeared pain free when he lined a single to right-center field in the first inning. Then he made one of the best defensive plays of the tournament, a diving catch on a pop-up that resulted in a face-plant into the warning track near where the TD Ameritrade Park tarp is stored.
“I like to dive for everything,” Guthrie said. “It seemed to be just the right distance away. Fortunately I was able to get it.”
Russell Reynolds, a senior, made his first start since 2015 for LSU. He’d pitched once since May 16 and prior to Monday had put up an earned-run average of 8.59 in 14 2⁄ relief innings. He 3 was scoreless through three innings, but ran into trouble in the fourth, walking three consecutive hitters before being pulled.
“I got a little greedy,” Mainieri said. “Just tried to stick with him a little too long and it backfired.”
Austin Langworthy, who was 2-for-3, drove-in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly, then Jonathan India, who was stuck in a 2-for-17 slump, ripped a fly ball that hopped over the center field fence, driving in two.
Florida, which is 19-7 in one-run games, rebounded in the seventh inning as Mike Rivera singled home Langworthy who started the inning with a double. Rivera has reached base in 30 straight games and has driven-in a run in his last four.