OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — LSU coach Paul Mainieri was beginning to think his team was jinxed at TD Ameritrade Park after watching Cal State Fullerton score three times in the first inning.
It turned out Mainieri had nothing to worry about with freshman sensation Alex Lange on the mound Tuesday.
Lange pitched his second complete game in three starts, allowing only three base runners after that rocky first inning, and the Tigers knocked the Titans out of the College World Series with a 5-3 victory.
"Obviously, the understatement of the day is we're so happy to get a win finally at TD Ameritrade Park," Mainieri said. "It's a wonderful ballpark and a wonderful city, but it was like a curse on the LSU Tigers to get a victory. It's very relieving."
The Tigers (54-11), the No. 2 national seed and the No. 1 team in the major polls, scored four times in the third inning to wipe out an early deficit. They'll play Thursday against the loser of the Tuesday night game between Vanderbilt and TCU.
LSU won six national championships at the old Rosenblatt Stadium but went into Tuesday 0-3 at the 5-year-old TD Ameritrade. The Tigers were in danger of going two-and-out, as they did in 2013, after losing 10-3 to TCU on Sunday. Instead, the Tigers maintained their streak of not losing back-to-back games this season.
Alex Bregman, the No. 2 overall draft pick by the Houston Astros, matched his career high with four hits while batting leadoff for the first time this season.
"Whether I'm hitting first or ninth, as long as we win I'm happy," Bregman said. "I felt comfortable up there. I was trying to square the ball up, get quality at-bats. We wanted to get our swagger back offensively. We've had a good offense all year long, and it's coming."
The Titans (39-25) used four straight hits and a squeeze bunt to jump out to a 3-0 lead against Lange (12-0). He allowed only two singles and a walk the rest of the way.
His 10 strikeouts gives him 33 over his last three starts.
Once he found his groove against Fullerton, Lange was determined to go the distance.
"These guys picked me up big-time, giving me four runs in the third, and that settled me down," Lange said. "I know we have two of the best relievers in the country in (Zac) Person and (Parker) Bugg, and they have my back if I run into trouble. But when you're out there, you want to finish it."
It was the continuation of a fabulous season for the Southeastern Conference's freshman of the year. The 6-foot-3, 198-pound Lange allowed three runs in 17 innings over his two previous NCAA Tournament starts. On Tuesday he had given up that many runs after facing just six batters.
"He has shown us all year that he's not ever going to throw in the towel," Mainieri said. "He's going to fight right to the end. I wasn't worried about him."
Bregman, who was 2 for 4 against TCU on Sunday after going 1 for 16 in his first five NCAA Tournament games, led off the inning the first three times he came to bat and singled four straight times before dribbling out to the pitcher in the eighth.
Bregman's base hit to left started LSU's four-run third inning against freshman Connor Seabold (5-4) and Miles Chambers. Kade Scivicque and Chris Sciambra and Chris Chinea followed with RBI singles and Andrew Stevenson's sacrifice fly brought in another run. Pinch hitter Danny Zardon's sacrifice fly in the seventh gave the Tigers a two-run cushion.
Fullerton jumped on Lange in the first. The Titans strung together four straight hits, including David Olmedo-Barrera's RBI triple, and Dalton Blaser brought in Jerrod Bravo from third with safety squeeze bunt that made it 3-0.
Fullerton has lost seven straight CWS games and is 2-8 in Omaha since winning the national title in 2004. The Titans twice blew 3-0 leads this week. They lost 4-3 to Vanderbilt on Monday on a walk-off home run.
"We played two games here and didn't lose one. We got beat twice. I can live with that," Titans coach Rick Vanderhook said. "We didn't beat ourselves at all."