College World Series 2017 scores and bracket: Oregon State chases LSU out of the park

The Beavers were having none of the Tigers.

Jun 20, 2017, 2:53 AM UTC

NCAA Baseball: College World Series-LSU vs Oregon State

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Sunday saw the highest scoring game of this year’s College World Series, with Louisville shutting down Texas A&M, 8-4, and the lowest scoring game, with Florida outlasting TCU, 3-0. The early session on Monday saw Florida State eliminate Cal State Fullerton from Omaha, 6-4, while Oregon State thoroughly dismantled LSU, 13-1, in the nightcap to hand the Tigers their first loss. One more failure and they’re done.

With the ‘Noles up 2-1 in the top of the sixth, FSU first baseman Drew Mendoza’s solo homer to right landed smack in the middle of the Seminoles’ bullpen, and it pushed the FSU lead up to 3-1. But Fullerton answered in the bottom of the frame with a Timmy Richards two-run shot to left center that landed in nearly the exact same spot where he hit a three-run bomb in Game 1 on Saturday. Monday’s blast chased FSU starter Drew Parrish, who’d up to that point thrown 5 2/3 innings of solid work, from the mound.

From there, Florida State plated three runs in the top of the seventh to bring the score to 6-4 and no more scoring would occur on the day. With the loss — Fullerton’s second in Omaha — the Titans were eliminated from the tournament after beginning it as a No. 4 seed in the Long Beach regional.

Oregon State and LSU faced off in the nightcap, a much anticipated matchup between a pair of tournament powerhouses. The Beavs rode a 22-game winning streak into the park, while the Tigers were sitting on 17 straight wins of their own.

The Beavers got started early, with Trevor Larnach knocking in Steven Kwan from second on a classic single up the middle. Oregon State pitcher Bryce Fehmel then blanked LSU in the bottom of the frame after tagging Tigers big bat Greg Deichmann out at second on a steal attempt.

Neither club could cross a run in the second, but in the top of the third, LSU starter Eric Walker suddenly got pulled after a trainer visited the mound. He’d apparently experienced forearm soreness during a simulation game before the team left for Omaha, and his exit was an unwelcome loss for a team that suddenly needed to deal with an arm missing from the rotation.

In any case, Walker’s departure ushered in Caleb Gilbert, a capable replacement, and he immediately struck out the first two batters he faced, then forced a groundout to the shortstop for the third out. Gilbert kept dealing after that, stranding two Beavers runners in the top of the fourth.

That gas wouldn’t last long, though, as LSU completely broke down in the fifth inning, committing two errors to plate two Beavers runs. The blunders costs the Tigers two arms, as Gilbert went down then Nick Bush and Todd Peterson after him, andPaul Mainieri brought on Hunter Newman in the top of the sixth.

In a word, Newman did not do well. He in fact gave up seven runs, four of which came astride the first grand slam in TD Ameritrade’s six-year history. Monday’s LSU team looked nothing like the Tigers of Saturday, whose stellar defense and clutch pitching shut down FSU for one of the best games of the tournament.

The terror didn’t end for LSU there, though, as Oregon State knocked in two more runs in the top of the eighth off of Austin Bain, the Tigers’ seventh pitcher of the night. Third baseman Josh Smith bumbled a diving catch on a grounder to allow runners to move over to second and third, then Cadyn Grenier swung them home on a blooper to right that Greg Deichmann couldn’t field. This was by then very much a rout of a very good baseball team.

As it was, though, LSU did manage a run in the bottom of the seventh, but it had no life after the preceding onslaught. Oregon State ended the game with a double play, and thus the Beavers are dancing the winners’ bracket with two wins. LSU will face Florida State on Wednesday in an elimination game, and that’s an exciting prospect.