LSU crushes Florida, 18-4, to win national baseball title
After Florida forced a winner-take-all Game 3 in baseball’s College World Series championship series by scoring the most runs in tournament history on Sunday, the Gators took a 2-0 lead over Louisiana State in Monday’s first inning and appeared to be ready. to capture the title.
That was until LSU’s bats exploded.
The Tigers scored six runs in the second inning and four in the fourth en route to an 18-4 victory over Florida on Monday in Omaha. It was LSU’s seventh national championship, but its first since 2009, ending what had been a high-scoring, unpredictable College World Series.
LSU won the first game of the final series against Florida in extra innings, 4-3, but was unable to match the Gators’ historic batting power in Game 2, losing 24-4. The Tigers turned the tables on Monday, led by a 4-for-6 performance from their leading outfielder, Dylan Crews.
“This is what I’ve dreamed of since I was a freshman and holding this trophy,” Crews said in a televised interview after the game. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
Florida’s pitching staff faltered at its worst, after allowing less than four runs per game in the five previous games on this CWS. and allowed six earned runs. The bullpen fared even worse, giving up 12 runs the rest of the way.
LSU previously faced Florida in a CWS championship series. In 2017, the Gators sent the Tigers out in one fell swoop. With the seven CWS titles, LSU has the second most behind only Southern California and its 12.
The series featured the three players expected to be selected first this summer MLB draft: Crews; his LSU teammate Paul Skenes, a pitcher; and Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford.
Crews won the Golden Spikes Award on Sunday, crowning him the best amateur baseball player in the country. On Monday, he proved why, with two stunning flyouts in the third inning — including one that required him to sprint to the left field wall and catch a long fly from Florida second baseman Kade Curland — and hit a triple in the eighth.
The Tigers sealed their victory in the fourth inning by extending their lead to eight runs, but it came with a loss – catcher Alex Milazzo had to be carried off the field after jumping over Gators catcher BT Riopelle to reach home plate and bring the score to 10. 2.
After committing two errors in Game 2 and struggling to find a rhythm, LSU shortstop Jordan Thompson redeemed himself in Game 3. Thompson went 0-for-9 in the first two games of the championship series, but he collected on Monday three RBI’s while also making some defensive plays. By the time he stepped up to the plate in the top of the fifth inning, the crowd was chanting his name.
The Tigers’ pitching also stabilized after a Game 2 to forget. The right-hander Thatcher Hurd allowed a home run in the first inning, but immediately bounced back, striking out Florida over the next five innings and striking out a total of seven as the Gators struggled to hit his breaking ball.
“Probably more impressive than winning the national championship is that they were national champions every day,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said after the game. “These guys had huge expectations all season and they delivered. They met them every day.”
When Johnson began leading the Tigers last season, he started a new tradition of taking a team photo after every win, regardless of the game’s consequences, to emphasize to his team how hard it was to win a baseball game.
It had been 14 years since LSU hadn’t won a national title, but when the Tigers jumped into a dogpile Monday night, cameras flashed.