Faedo pitches UF to finals
Gators to meet LSU after Tigers upset top seed Oregon St.
OMAHA, NEB. — Alex Faedo pitched three-hit ball for 7 ⅓ innings in a second straight strong performance against TCU, and Florida moved to the College World Series finals with a 3-0 win Saturday night.
No. 3 national seed Florida (50-19) will play No. 4 seed LSU (52-18) in the best-ofthree championship series beginning Monday night. TCU (50-18) had beaten the Gators 9-2 on Friday to force the winner-take-all bracket final and the teams’ third meeting in a week.
Faedo (9-2) struck out 11, just as he did last Sunday in a 3-0 win over the Horned Frogs. Michael Byrne fin- ished for his 18th save, allow- ing one hit.
The Gators had struggled on offense since they arrived in Omaha, but they mustered enough against Jared Janczak (9-2). Christian Hicks hit an RBI double and a triple and scored a run.
Florida will play for its first national championship in baseball.
LSU 6, Oregon State 1: Nothing LSU encounters in the finals will be any more daunting than the task it completed to get there.
The Tigers twice beat an Oregon State team that owned the most formidable
(Best-of-three series)
Game 1, 7 p.m., ESPN
Game 2, 8 p.m., ESPN Game 3 (if necessary), 8 p.m., ESPN
record of any team in four decades, and they did it in dominating fashion.
Caleb Gilbert held the No. 1 national seed Beavers to two hits in 7⅓ innings, Michael Papierski homered from both sides of the plate, and LSU won Saturday a day after beating them 3-1.
“To lose four games the entire season, and we beat them two days in a row, it’s hard to predict those things to happen, but that’s why you have to play the games,” Tigers coach Paul Mainieri said. “Our kids embraced the challenge.”
The Tigers (52-18) won their third straight elimination game since they lost their series opener 13-1 to Oregon State.
The Beavers (56-6) had a pair of 23-game winning streaks and finished the season with a .903 winning percentage — the best since Texas’ mark of .908 in 1982.
“It’s a tough day when you’ve had such a great year,” coach Pat Casey said. “Now is not the time to really think about that or talk about it, but I know there will be a time when they get to sit back and reflect and realize what they accomplished.”