Dominant pitching gives Florida 1-0 edge

Singer strikes out 12 to pull Gators within one win of first title.

OMAHA, NEB. — Florida got a dominant performance from Brady Singer, a big defensive play when LSU was threatening and just enough offense.

r a 4-3 win in Game 1 of the College World Series on Monday night, the Gators were one win from their first national championship in baseball.

But with LSU all-time wins leader Jared Poche’ starting Tuesday and first-round draft pick Alex Lange available if there’s a Game 3, the Tigers weren’t giving up.

“We’ve got to play better if we want to win this thing,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s not near over. We got six hits tonight, and Brady had to pitch his tail off.”

LSU’s Greg Deichmann said he and his teammates didn’t lose their confidence. Poche’ (12-3) pitched against Tyler Dyson (3-0).

“We’re not hanging our heads about anything,” he said. “We had a lot of great stuff we did tonight. We had a couple of tough breaks that didn’t go our way.”

Singer struck out a career- high 12 in seven innings before turning the game over to closer Michael Byrne, who picked up his nation-leading 19th save. The Gators (51-19) are 19-7 in one-run games.

Singer relied on his fastball the first time through LSU’s batting order and cleverly mixed in sliders the rest of the way.

His strikeout total was the highest by a pitcher in a CWS finals game. Singer (9-5) limited LSU (52-19) to three singles before Antoine Duplantis homered in the sixth.

Singer turned in his second strong performance at the CWS. The sophomore struck out nine and allowed one run in seven innings against Louisville. Monday marked the eighth straight game that Florida pitchers struck out 11 or more.

Singer left with a 4-2 lead after Deichmann doubled leading off the eighth. Josh Smith sent Byrne’s pitch into the right-center gap to drive in Deichmann. But Smith was thrown out trying for second by Nick Horvath.

LSU pitcher’s father helps save fan: The father of LSU pitcher Jared Poche’ helped revive an 87-year-old man who was slumped on the TD Ameritrade Park concourse with no pulse during Game 1.

Dr. Jerry Poche’ was in Section 117 when he was summoned by another LSU fan in the sixth inning of Monday night’s game.

Poche’ said he began doing chest compressions, and Jimmy Roy, a firefighter who is the father of LSU strength and conditioning coach Travis Roy, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until medics arrived.

“He started breathing on his own a little and his pulse came back, and we were fortunate we were able to revive him,” Poche’ said.

Nebraska Medical Center spokesman Taylor Wilson said the man, a Florida fan who had an apparent heart attack and was not identified, was in good condition.