TOP-RANKED OREGON STATE DEFEATS LSU,
Oregon State limits LSU to single run in 13-1 shellacking
OMAHA, Neb.—Bryce Fehmel limited LSU to two hits in eight innings, KJ Harrison hit the first College World Series grand slam at TD Ameritrade Park, and Oregon State beat LSU 13-1 for its 23rd straight win Monday night.
The top-seeded Beavers (564), who matched the school-record win streak they set earlier this season, took control of Bracket 1. They don’t play again until Friday, and need one more win to advance to next week’s best-of-three finals.
LSU (49-18) had its 17-game win streak end with its most lopsided CWS loss since a 20-6 rout by Cal State Fullerton in 1994.
LSU had issues early in the game. Starter Eric Walker (8-2) left the game after throwing four pitches in the third inning because of forearm tightness.
Caleb Gilbert held the Beavers for a couple of innings, but they capitalized on a couple of LSU misplays to go up 3-0 in the fifth.
Oregon State broke the game open in the sixth.
Harrison hammered Hunter Newman’s first pitch over the left-center fence for the first CWS grand slam since 2010, the last year the event was played at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Harrison broke into a wide smile as he watched the ball fly out, his trot turned into a run and he whooped and pounded his chest as he approached teammates waiting at home plate. Harrison has four home runs and 14 RBIs in seven NCAA Tournament games.
Fehmel (6-2), who pitched a complete game in the Beavers’ super regional-clinching win over Vanderbilt on June 10, made his second postseason start since the rotation was adjusted to account for the loss of Luke Heimlich.
Heimlich, the Pac-12 pitcher of the year, has been out since it was revealed June 8 that when he was a teenager he pleaded guilty to molesting a 6-year-old girl.
Fehmel wiggled out of a mini jam in the fifth before Zach Watson’s homer in the seventh allowed LSU to avoid getting shut out for the first time in its 62 CWS games.
LOTS OF PITCHERS LSU used eight pitchers to tie the CWS record for most in a game. Walker and Gilbert were the only ones to work at least two innings.
HE DOESN’T GIVE UP MANY
Newman, LSU’s former closer, had not allowed a homer this season until Harrison’s grand slam. It was only the second home run Newman has allowed in 100 innings he’s worked since 2015.