College World Series 2016 scores and bracket: Top seed Florida goes 0-2 in Omaha

When Kevin O’Sullivan looks back on this season, he’ll surely remember it as the one that got away. His Florida Gators club earned the top overall national seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament and seemingly owned the most direct path to a program-first College World Series title. Instead, Florida dropped a second straight game to Texas Tech, 3-2, on Tuesday and got bounced out of Omaha again.

Florida’s juggernaut pitching staff was nigh unhittable in 2016. Logan Shore, Alex Faedo and A.J. Puk were big, commanding aces who could throw long into their starts. They were backed up by a deep bullpen with monster arms.

But narrative and on-paper advantages fly right out the window in Omaha as Miami learned the hard way on Monday afternoon. Florida, having now lost two straight games to open their trip to the CWS, joins the Canes as just another national seed that couldn’t win when it absolutely needed to.

Scoring has been a rarity in Omaha this year -- 2016’s CWS has been the lowest-scoring tournament through seven games in tournament history -- and the undercurrent thus far has been one of upsets.

The Red Raiders led Florida, 2-0, for much of the outing and then plated a crucial run in the top of the ninth on a wild play that featured consecutive throwing errors by the Gators’ first and third basemen. With one last chance in the bottom panel, Florida showed a flash of its regular season brilliance. Buddy Reed singled and was aboard at first, then Gator slugger and very large human Peter Alonso came to the plate with no outs. On the 2-2 pitch Alonso blasted a two-run shot over the left field wall to bring Florida within one and suddenly the rally was on. But then JJ Schwarz struck out swinging and Mike Rivera popped out to second base.

At this point in Florida’s lineup -- the six-hole -- four freshman bat consecutively. They operate in tandem as something of a platoon, working together to move one another around the bases. Jonathan India starts the parade, and on Tuesday with two outs he looped a well hit ball to left field and took the initiative to extend the play for a double. Only he didn’t expect Tyler Neslony’s cannon to be there waiting for him.

With Florida’s early exit, all 17 of the teams from the ACC and SEC that made the original field of 64 have been eliminated. No. 5 Texas Tech is the only national seed left in the tournament.

The night game featured your new favorite team, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, facing down mighty TCU in the winners bracket. The great question surrounding this game was whether Coastal could keep the Cinderella run of its first CWS appearance rolling having just offed big bad Florida on Sunday night.

The Chants failed to win, though, dropping in listless fashion to TCU, 6-1.

TCU starter Brian Howard painted a masterful five and two thirds innings, allowing six hits and striking out seven Chanticleers batters. Also, he’s about as tall as the Omaha Ferris wheel.

The winners bracket game was tense throughout with pitching changes and base running antics making for an entertaining affair. TCU designated hitter and bat-wielding grizzly bear Luken Baker opened the scoring on the first pitch of the second with a solo blast straight into the right field bullpen. The wind had been blowing in from right,and considering TD Ameritrade Park’s outsized dimensions, his dinger is nothing short of unearthly.

Coastal starter Alex Cunningham worked more or less without issue until the top of the fifth, when he loaded the bases and walked in a run. He was therefore done after four and a third, with two earned runs, four hits and two strikeouts. His replacement Bobby Holmes, who dealt bravely in Coastal’s wild win over LSU, immediately gave up two more runs but got himself out of there before more damage could be done.

The Frogs and Chants traded runs in the sixth to bring things to 4-1. Holmes returned for the seventh to blank TCU 1-2-3 on groundouts. He made it through just one batter in the eighth before yielding the wheel to Mike Morrison, who threw shakily for an inning and a third and allowed two runs, one unearned.

With the win, TCU remains unblemished in Omaha. The Chanticleers, meanwhile, are still alive, but they will face off with Texas Tech on Thursday with the loser of that game is going home.