After Florida forced a winner-take-all game in Sunday’s Game 3 of Baseball College World Series by scoring the most runs in tournament history, the Gators went Monday in the first inning with 2: 0 against Louisiana State and appeared evenly matched to capture the title.
Until LSU’s offensive took hold.
The Tigers scored six runs in the second inning and four in the fourth en route to an 18-4 win over Florida in Omaha on Monday. It was LSU’s seventh national championship, but its first since 2009, capping an unpredictably high-scoring College World Series.
LSU won the first game of the Finals series against Florida in an extra innings 4-3, but couldn’t match the Gators’ historic performance in Game 2 and lost 24-4. The Tigers turned the tables on Monday, led by a 4-for-6 display from their star outfielder Dylan Crews.
“It’s what I’ve dreamed of since I was a freshman, to hold this trophy,” Crews said in a post-game television interview. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
Florida’s pitching team faltered at its worst after allowing fewer than four runs per game in the previous five games at this CWS. Starting pitcher Jac Caglianone, who also leads the Gators on home runs, lasted just one and a third innings and allowed six earned runs. The bullpen fared even worse, having to give up 12 runs the rest of the way.
LSU had previously played Florida in a CWS championship series. In 2017, the Gators defeated the Tigers in a snap. With seven CWS titles, LSU has the second most titles, behind only Southern California and its 12th.
The series introduced the three players likely to be the first picks in this summer’s MLB draft: Crews; his LSU teammate Paul Skenes, a pitcher; and Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford.
Crews won Sunday’s Golden Spikes Award, crowning him the nation’s top amateur baseball player. He proved why on Monday by making two stunning catches in the third inning — including one that required him to sprint and jump to the left field wall to catch a long fly from Florida second baseman Kade Curland — and in the eighth inning scored a triple.
The Tigers sealed their win in the fourth inning by extending their lead to eight runs, but a loss ensued – catcher Alex Milazzo had to be carried off the field after vaulting over Gators catcher BT Riopelle to take the home to reach Plate and reach 10th. 2.
After committing two errors in Game 2 and struggling to find a rhythm, LSU shortstop Jordan Thompson redeemed himself in Game 3. Thompson was 0-on-9 in the first two games of the championship series but also rallied three on Monday RBI run a series of defensive plays. When he stepped up to the plate early in the fifth inning, the crowd chanted his name.
The Tigers’ pitching also stabilized after a memorable Game 2. Right-hander Thatcher Hurd conceded a first-round home run but immediately recovered, shutting out Florida in the next five innings and recording a total of seven strikeouts while the Gators struggled to hit his breakball.
“Probably more impressive than winning the national championship is that they’ve been national champions every day,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson after the game. “These guys had great expectations all season and they lived up to them. You met her every day.”
When Johnson began managing the Tigers last season, he began a new tradition of taking a team photo after every win, regardless of the aftermath of the game, to show his team just how hard it was to win a baseball game.
It had been 14 years without a national title for LSU, but cameras flashed when the Tigers jumped in dog poo Monday night.