S-E-C!: LSU, Florida to meet for national championship in Omaha

Florida teammates celebrate their 3-0 win over TCU in an NCAA College World Series baseball game Saturday, June 24, 2017, in Omaha, Neb. (Brendan Sullivan/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

— Alex Faedo dominated TCU for a second straight time, and now he and his Florida Gators teammates will face a familiar opponent in the College World Series finals.

The Detroit Tigers' first-round draft pick pitched three-hit ball for 7 1/3 shutout innings to lead the Gators to a 3-0 win Saturday night, setting up an all-Southeastern Conference best-of-three finals against LSU beginning Monday.

No. 3 national seed Florida (50-19) is in the finals for the first time since 2011 and looking for its first championship in baseball. Fourth-seeded LSU, which shared the SEC regular-season title with the Gators, advanced with a 6-1 win over No. 1 Oregon State on Saturday.

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.

"It helps that we've had to bounce back all year," Christian Hicks said. "The game before has no bearing on today's game. You just flush that and come back out and try to do your best today."

Faedo (9-2) struck out 11, just as he did last Sunday in a 3-0 win over the Horned Frogs. Michael Byrne finished for his 18th save.

"I thought our at-bats were significantly better today than they were the last time we faced him," TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. "But the chances that we did get, he made pitches. We hit some balls hard. The balls we did hit hard seemed to be at somebody. But that doesn't take away from how outstanding he was."

Faedo was the loser in the Gators' last game in Omaha in 2016, giving up a two-run homer in a 3-2 loss to Texas Tech in an elimination game.

"Just throughout the day, I just tried to think back to my start last year when I was kind of in the same situation," he said. "It all came down to one pitch. And that's what I tried to bring to the game this year — I just can't make that pitch again that lost the game last year. We've been in this situation before, and I tried to bear down with every pitch I threw."

The Gators had struggled on offense since they arrived in Omaha, but with Faedo holding down the Frogs they were able to muster enough against Jared Janczak (9-2).

Austin Langworthy doubled and scored on a groundout in the second inning, Hicks doubled in a run in the fifth, and he scored in the seventh when he tripled and came home on Deacon Liput's grounder that deflected off first base.

Faedo reached for his cramping right calf after delivering a pitch to Josh Watson in the seventh, and he grabbed the calf again when he struck Watson out to end the inning. He came out for the eighth and got a groundout, but he left after Austen Wade singled.

Zach Humphreys greeted Byrne with a base hit, but the star closer struck out Evan Skoug and got Cam Warner to fly out to end the threat.

"All I was trying to do was get a groundball (against Skoug), and it just happened to be a strikeout, so that was big," Byrne said. "I had to get Cam out. He got me last game on a double in the gap. I threw good pitches to him and got out of it."

Janczak and Faedo were matched up for the second time. Janczak, who struggled against the Gators last Sunday, struck out seven, walked none and scattered seven hits in seven innings.

"We didn't get out-efforted. We tried hard," Schlossnagle said. "I felt good about our attitude and our effort. But Florida played better. And they deserve to be in the championship, and best of luck to them."

LSU 6, OREGON STATE 1

Nothing LSU encounters in the College World Series championship series will be any more daunting than the task the Tigers had to complete to get there.

The Tigers had to beat an Oregon State team that owned the most formidable record of any team in four decades, and they had to do it twice.

They did in dominating fashion.

Caleb Gilbert held the No. 1 national seed Beavers to two hits in 7 1/3 innings, Michael Papierski homered from both sides of the plate and LSU won 6-1 on 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 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," Beavers 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."

Gilbert allowed an infield single and walk before Michael Gretler homered in the seventh. He struck out a career-high seven in his longest outing in his two seasons at LSU. Zack Hess allowed one hit the rest of the way.

"It's a surreal feeling to be able to pitch your team, when the back's against the wall in an elimination game, into the College World Series final," Gilbert said. "I just had all the faith in the world in my teammates and my coaching staff and just really went out there and pitched my game, tried to attack early with a heater and get ahead and trust my defense behind me."

Papierski became the first player to homer twice in a CWS game since TCU's Bryan Holaday in 2010. He went deep from the left side off Bryce Fehmel in the second and the right side off Brandon Eisert in the fourth.

"I put some good swings on fastballs today," Papierski said, "and after that, the wind helped a little bit. But that wasn't the highlight of the game. It was Caleb Gilbert."

The Beavers managed only a season-low two hits on Friday and the three against Gilbert and Hess on Saturday. They went the first 17 innings Friday and Saturday without having a leadoff batter reach base.

"A lot of the game we were taking a lot of defensive swings," Gretler said. "We didn't put any pressure on them."

Before Saturday, Oregon State hadn't lost consecutive games since a five-game losing streak from May 6-13, 2016.

Fourth-seeded LSU bounced back from a 13-1 loss to Oregon State on Monday and reached the championship round for the first time since winning the national title in 2009.

The Beavers had made up a four-run deficit in a 6-5 win over Cal State Fullerton last Saturday, but Gilbert and Hess made that a nearly impossible task.

Oregon State's postseason was tainted by the revelation that Pac-12 pitcher of the year Luke Heimlich had pleaded guilty to molesting a 6-year-old female relative when he was a teenager. Heimlich didn't pitch in super regionals, and he didn't accompany the team to Omaha.

Details about the molestation came to light June 8 in a story published by The Oregonian/OregonLive. In an editorial accompanying the article, the newspaper said it learned about Heimlich's 2012 conviction in Washington state after running a background check that it routinely does for in-depth profiles.

Fehmel made his third postseason start since the rotation was adjusted to account for the loss of Heimlich.

"This is a great team," the Beavers' KJ Harrison said. "For us to end up the way we were, obviously, it's not the best. We wanted to win it all. As the days go on, it's definitely a season to remember."

THE MATCHUP

Florida won two of three regular-season meetings with LSU in Gainesville in March. The Tigers will be the home team in Game 1 of the finals and the Gators in Game 2. LSU would be the home team if a Game 3 is necessary.

NO. 1 SEED GOES OUT AGAIN

This marks the 18th year in a row that the No. 1 national seed won't win the championship. Miami in 1999 is the only No. 1 seed to go all the way. That was the first year of the current tournament format.