SEC Baseball

Wiel homer ends Young no-hit bid, Vandy tops TCU

Vanderbilt's Zander Wiel (43) celebrates his solo home run against TCU in the seventh inning of an NCAA College World Series baseball game at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, June 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Ted Kirk)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Zander Wiel's home run leading off the seventh inning broke up Alex Young's no-hit bid, Philip Pfeifer and Kyle Wright combined on a five-hitter and the Commodores defeated TCU 1-0 in the College World Series on Tuesday night.

The defending national champion Commodores (49-19) earned two days off and would have to be beaten twice by either TCU (50-14) or LSU to be denied a second straight trip to the best-of-three finals. Those teams will play an elimination game Thursday.

Young (9-3) flummoxed Vanderbilt for six innings, striking out a career-high 12 batters. Wiel drove out the junior left-hander's 2-1 changeup just inside the left-field foul pole for his 15th homer of the season. Young left after Rhett Wiseman doubled with two outs in the eighth.

Pfeiffer (5-5) and Wright allowed five singles and walked four, but the Horned Frogs went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Wright earned his fourth save.

It was the second straight narrow win for the Commodores. They came back from a 3-0 deficit on Monday to defeat Cal State Fullerton 4-3 on Jeren Kendall's walk-off home run, and they made the most of their three hits against Young, a second-round draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Trey Teakell.

With Virginia's 1-0 win over Florida on Monday, this marks the first year since 1972 that there have been two 1-0 games in the CWS.

The first six innings weren't entirely smooth for Young. The Commodores loaded the bases in the third on a passed ball on a strikeout, a throwing error on Young and a walk. Young struck out Rhett Wiseman and Dansby Swanson to end the threat and begin a stretch of 11 straight batters retired before Wiel went deep.

TCU threatened in the seventh when Keaton Jones singled and took second on a throwing error. But Pfeifer got out of it, getting a flyout and strikeout before second baseman Tyler Campbell went into the outfield grass to pick up a grounder and throw out Cody Jones.

Dansby Swanson, the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Diamondbacks, continued to struggle at the plate for Vanderbilt. Last year's CWS Most Outstanding Player went 0 for 4, and he's hitless in eight at-bats with three strikeouts in two games in Omaha.

TCU and Vanderbilt were playing for the second time this season. The Frogs won the first meeting 4-2 at Dodger Stadium on March 7.