College World Series 2017 scores and bracket: TCU drops Louisville from Omaha

The Horned Frogs’ pitching held on to save them.

Updated Jun 23, 2017, 5:04 PM UTC

NCAA Baseball: College World Series-Louisville vs TCU

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Florida State became the third team eliminated from this year’s College World Series on Wednesday night, dropping a more subdued loss to LSU, 5-4, after a wild affair on Saturday to fail out of Omaha yet again. In the other bracket, Louisville and TCU faced off in an elimination game, after both teams had been beaten by Florida in the CWS’ opening weekend.

TCU eventually eliminated Louisville in a 4-3 victory.

Neither team could break through in the first, with TCU’s Nick Lodolo and Louisville’s Nick Bennett sitting down each other’s sides in order to commence proceedings. Louisville was blanked in the top of the second, but in the bottom of the frame TCU third baseman Elliott Barzilli singled into right, then stole second, then third, and Connor Wanhanen knocked him home on a double to left center.

With Wanhanen on second, Bennett then dinged left fielder Josh Watson for his second runner of the inning. He was by then up to pitch 44 of the outing, and thoroughly smarting from TCU’s extended at-bats. That trouble only led to more, as a wild pitch moved both Horned Frogs over, and suddenly the threat was on.

Ryan Merrill then shot a single through, and that plated both Watson and Wanhanen, but not before an umpire review of Watson’s slide at the plate. He was safe — close, to be sure — but he was clearly safe, and that put the Frogs up, 3-0. Two outs, Merrill on second, and Louisville putting up action in the bullpen.

That pen action would eventually end Bennett’s night, as Adam Wolf came on to try and end the rally. Leadoff man Austen Wade managed a single to plate Merrill, and Wolf allowed no further runs in the frame. Still, though, the damage had been done, and TCU held a substantial lead into the top of the third, 4-0.

Louisville finally busted through in the top of the third, thanks to a Josh Showers single that put across Devin Mann from second. The Cards could manage no more, though, despite their bats finding the ball and some hit batters antics from Wolf.

The Frogs scored none in the bottom of the third, then big time bat Brendan McKay led off in the fourth and immediately blasted a homer to right, thus chopping TCU’s lead in half, 4-2. Devin Hairston followed that up with a single to left center, and the Cardinals were back in the fight with no outs.

TCU started a buildup in the bottom of the fourth, after Wanhanen dropped a single into center and Watson walked. These two worked in impressive tandem all evening, harrying Louisville’s staff into manufactured runs of the old school variety. Nothing came of that one-two, as Watson was tagged out trying to steal second, and off to the fifth they went.

The top of that inning ended Lodolo’s night immediately, after Logan Taylor slammed a big league homer over the right field wall. With the score 4-3, the Frogs couldn’t risk further damage that early in the evening, and so on came the alliterative Cal Coughlin to handle swing duties until the later innings.

Coughlin lasted just two outs, however, and Sean Wymer was brought in to handle mop up duties. He pushed the Frogs through the fifth, putting down the side in the top of the sixth. Big time arm Sam Bordner came on for Louisville in the bottom of the frame, in the hope that he could finish out the game with no more water taken on.

Flamethrower Sam Bordner took the hill for Louisville in the bottom of the sixth, with the Cards sporting still a 4-3 disadvantage. He put down the side in order, then it was TCU’s duty to allow no more Cardinal runs, insofar as tagging hits off Bordner is the tallest of tasks in college baseball this season. Bordner and Wymer thus sat down for a classic pitchers’ duel, with neither crossing runs for two innings.

In the top of the eighth, Louisville catcher Colby Fitch reach first, then tried to steal second where he was thrown out on a very close tag-and-touch. That brought out Cards skipper Dan McDonnell to argue vociferously with the second base umpire, who promptly tossed Louisville’s head man — the first such coaching ejection in the CWS since 2007. McKay struck out swinging and the frame was over.

TCU answered in the bottom of the eighth with an impressive bunt down the third base line, which Drew Ellis fielded then blasted for a wild throw over to second, which Zach Humphreys capitalized on for an advancement to second. Power man Evan Skoug then received an expected intentional walk, and a committee meeting took place at the mound with Lincoln Henzman.

As it happened, though, TCU’s arms could survive the Cards, and they polished off a 4-3 win to score a rematch with Florida on Friday night.