The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dodgers’ young king of clout
After 2016 letdown, ‘gritty’ team earns school’s fifirst title.
All things seem possible for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger, the rookie 21-year-old son of former major leaguer Clay Bellinger who leads the National League in home runs. “He’s probably going to break Barry Bonds’ record. He might do it in two years if he keeps hitting two every game,” said Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers’ All-Star closer.
Maybe this OMAHA, NEB. — wasn’t Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s best team. It is, however, his fifirst national championship team.
A year after the Gators went two games and out at the College World Series with a team seeded No. 1 and loaded with high draft picks, they won fifive of six in Omaha and completed a sweep of SEC rival LSU in the finals with a 6-1 victory Tuesday night.
The Gators scored four runs in the eighth inning to pull away and now, for the
fifirst time in the program’s 103-year history, the championship trophy will be with the team when it travels back to Gainesville.
“Just a gritty group, that’s all I can say,” said O’Sullivan, the 10th-year coach who had brought the Gators to Omaha six of the last eight years. “There are other teams that may be bigger and stronger — our starting pitching has carried us the whole year — butwe got some timely hits.”
Florida (52-19) posted the eighth sweep in the 15 years of the best-of-three finals format, and fifirst since 2013. LSU (52-20) lost for the fifirst time in seven appearances in a championship game.
Florida was in the CWS for the 11th time and previously had made it to the
finals in 2005 and 2011, getting swept each time.
“They’re a very deserving national champion,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “I’m happy for Kevin. He works hard, and he has had several teams that maybe were even better than this teamand sat up here as disappointed as I am right now. Finally got his championship.”
O’Sullivan got creative Tuesday, sending freshman Tyler Dyson to them ound for only his seconds tart and calling on Jackson Kowar, who would have been the starter if a Game 3 had been necessary, to fifinish the game.
“Something thatmade this team so special was each and every game, someone new stepped up,” second baseman Deacon Liput said.“You never really knew who that person was going to be.”
On this night, it was Dyson (4-0), who limited the Tigers to three hits in six innings. The Gators staked Dyson to an early 2-0 lead after LSU, one of the best fielding teams in the nation, committed three errors the fifirst two innings.
Things got interesting after Michael Byrne relieved Dyson in the seventh. LSU pulled to 2-1 andwould have
tied it if not for Jake Slaughter being called for runner interference at second base for sliding into shorts top Dal
ton Guthrie’s leg as he was throwing to first to turn a double play. Josh Smith, who had run home, was sent back to third, and Beau Jordan
flied out to end the inning. The next inning LSU had runners at the corners, but JJ Schwarz threw out Kramer Robertson at the plate and Zach Watson, the Tigers’ hottest hitter in the CWS,
flied out to end the inning. The Gators scored four in the bottom of the eighth. LSU reliever Zack Hess hit a batter with the bases loaded, Liput hit a two-run single and Schwarz had a sacrifice fly.
Jared Poche (12-4), the Tigers’ all-time wins leader, took the loss in his last start.
“As a pitcher, once you let go of the baseball, you can’t control anything that happens after that,” he said. “The guys have been making plays for me all year, my
entire career. Unfortunately, (they) kicked the ball around a little bit, but these guys, I’d go to war with all these guys on this team.”
Last year was supposed to be O’Sullivan’s best chance to winit all, and it was crushing to go 0-2 in Omaha with a teamthat had eight players taken in the fifirst 10 rounds of the major league draft.
Florida this year brought back one of the nation’s top weekend rotations in Alex Faedo, Brady Singer and Kowar and a reliever in Byrne who led the country with a school-record 19 saves. Plus, the defense was ranked in the top 10 in the country.
Faedo was named Most Outstanding Player after two strong starts against TCU — five hits and no runs with 22 strikeouts in 14⅓ innings.