Oregon State gave up a slugfest loss to LSU on Friday after trouncing the Tigers earlier in the week, 13-1. That certainly lit a fire under the collective ass of Paul Mainieri’s LSU outfit, because the Tigers stormed back for a 3-1 victory behind strongarm pitcher Alex Lange.

Now the Tigers and Beavers will meet for a bracket-deciding rubber match on Saturday.

In the bottom of the third inning, with the Beavs trailing, 2-1, center fielder Steven Kwan stepped up and laced a high looper down the third base line. It curved left, then more left, before eventually striking the left field wall right at the yellow painted foul line on the padding of the fence. This is a very, very close call.

A wild affair went down in the College Station super regional, where Davidson got up on Texas A&M, 6-2, until the top of the eighth when a bonkers collision plated two Aggie runners to cap off a disastrous inning for the Wildcats. The darlings of this year’s tournament were dispatched with relative ease in the super regional round, an unfortunate if not altogether unforeseen outcome. Still these Wildcats should feel encouraged at the run of success they had this year, and hopefully they’ll see tournament play again.

Down in the Gainesville super regional, rain blasted through north-central Florida soon after first pitch, delaying play a full four hours. The resulting nearly eight-hour marathon session couldn’t be decided in nine innings, as the Gators and Demon Deacons took a 1-1 tie into two extra innings before Ryan Larson banged a bases-loaded single to walk off for the Gator win.

This game’s ending also gave us one of the best celebrations of the tournament so far, and why not: Florida hit its first walkoff of the season.

Ichiro Suzuki wants to play baseball until he’s 50. If he gets to do that in MLB, he’s going to end up setting a bunch of age-related records just for showing up on a given day. He got one of those on Sunday, when he started in center field for the Marlins. At 43 years and 246 days old, that made him the oldest player to ever start in center field, breaking a record held by Rickey Henderson.

It wasn’t just the jumbotron. Charleston’s mascot, Charlie T. River Dog, piled it on by wearing John 3:16 eyeblack, the same bible verse Tebow wore during the 2008 National Championship Game against Oklahoma.

The RiverDog’s president and general manager, Dave Echols released a statement via the Post and Courier regarding the antics.

While we believe that our promotions were poking fun at Mr. Tebow’s celebrity status rather than his religion or baseball career, our intent was not to offend anyone, and for the fact that we did offend, we are sorry. Echols said.

Of the many promotional pieces that we executed, there were a handful on Friday’s game that some construed as in poor taste, and we made it a focus to remove those elements and celebrate Mr. Tebow the remainder of his time in Charleston, Echols added.

Tebow went 1-for-4 on the night, and one of his highlights was this unfortunate moment when his bat slipped out of his hands from his swing and went into the stands.

As you’ll see with a couple of these games, I’m cheating and using games I’ve written about extensively. Mayne’s unlikely relief performance has long been a fascination of mine. It’s still one of my favorite baseball stories of all-time.

Catching a baseball is hard. Catching a baseball with your bare hand is harder. Catching a baseball with your bare hand while worrying about the sawed-off barrel of a bat that’s helicoptering toward your ankles? Absurdly difficult.

Upon closer inspection, the ball hits the freaking barrel of the bat again right before Song has to field it, which means it’s the spiritual successor to this famous play:

It might not be as good, but Smith didn’t have to dodge a splintery death, either. What a fine, terrifying play.

Or what about Yonder Alonso or Justin Smoak? Both of them were picked in the top half of the first round in 2008. Both of them were disappointments relative to expectations. For years, they seemed like busts. And now … they’re All-Stars?

Does that mean the Reds and Rangers, respectively, were right to draft them after all?

Does it mean those teams were right to trade them before their value plummeted?

Does it mean that it really didn’t matter where they were drafted because they were going to wait nine years to reach their potential?

Back in Omaha for the first time since 2012, FSU is currently averaging 7.4 runs per game, the highest scoring rate in the remaining tournament field. The ‘Noles are particularly troublesome to pitch against, since their lineup has four switch-hitters, including power man Jackson Lueck, who knocked in the walk-off RBI that won the Tallahassee super regional. The ‘Noles aren’t the most powerful hitting team out there by any stretch, but they’re patient and lead the nation in walks with 380 on the season. They will get on base.

Let’s get this out of the way: If you give up a big homer, and the player who hit that homer spends a moment admiring said homer, you are not allowed to be mad at them. They earned it! Many of the Mets do not agree with this point of view, a fact we learned after Yasiel Puig blasted a three-run shot against them on Wednesday.

Wilmer Flores spoke about it after the game:

I just told him to run the bases, that was it, Flores said. I don’t think he knows what having respect for the game is. We’re playing horrible right now, we don’t need his (behavior).

Behavior was definitely a four-letter word that began with s and ended with hit before ESPN censored it. Puig’s response to all that, according to Flores? F–k you. It also wasn’t the only conversation a Mets player tried to have with Puig about it, as ESPN wrote that Yoenis Cespedes and Jose Reyes tried to explain to Puig that he should run a little faster. (Puig’s response to that? I don’t look at it that way, but it is what it is.)

There’s no question that Nolan Ryan is one of the greatest pitchers to ever take the mound. But is he the best ever? Beyond the Box Score makes the argument in favor of the legendary flamethrower.

The D-Backs had a small moment of national relevance when Sen. John McCain used them as an excuse for his incoherent moment on Capitol Hill this past Thursday. But the senator actually has good reason to be staying up late to keep up with them. Arizona has 38 wins in mid-June when it took them until July 5 of last year to reach that number. Unless they go into a major swoon during the dog days of summer, they’re more than likely going to finish far ahead of the 69 wins they posted last season.

Ask 100 old-timey baseball people what the most important position on the field is, and 99 of them will say catcher. Ask them what the second-most important position is, and 99 of them will say shortstop. Don’t worry about the one. That’s just Carl. Nobody likes Carl.

The Yankees traded for Aroldis Chapman, knowing his own domestic violence suspension would reduce the cost, and then they traded him for more than they gave up to get him at the July deadline. The Cubs acquired Chapman from the Yankees because the suspension was over and they could leverage him into winning a World Series, ghoul status be damned.

Heimlich might be where MLB draws the line. Draft expert Christopher Crawford told SB Nation that he stopped asking if Heimlich was on teams’ draft boards after team seven said he’s off the board. John Manuel, per that earlier Baseball America story, has also heard from several teams that Heimlich is no longer under consideration anywhere in the draft.

This doesn’t mean that Heimlich absolutely will not be drafted. All it takes is one team thinking like the Mets did about Reyes, and suddenly, Heimlich is a professional baseball player.

Audrey Stark has already detailed why there is still fear that Heimlich could be drafted despite the fact that he’s a registered sex offender who molested a 6-year-old family member. Over the next three days, all 30 MLB teams have the opportunity to let Heimlich pass by, rather than excusing his behavior and status because he’s now inexpensive and talented.

We know at least seven teams no longer have Heimlich on their board let’s hope the rest of the league has followed suit by the time all 40 rounds have concluded.

Jace Peterson has four years of major league experience, but he’s never made a catch as ridiculous as this.

If this play happened in the World Series, you would see it for the rest of your life. As is, it happened in a Gwinnett Braves game, and … well, maybe you should set a yearly reminder so you can see it for the rest of your life. What a play.

32 prospects on my aggregate list received a valuation of $35M or more. If Kelly is to now be considered that good, he and Wong could be paired to bring in a Donaldson. I’m not a scout by any means, but I he probably doesn’t jump quite that high. If he’s not quite that elite, the Cards would need to add something else along with Wong and Kelly.

Austin Gomber, John Gant, Junior Fernandez, Edmundo Sosa, Connor Jones, Dylan Carlson, and Jake Woodford all didn’t make any of the top prospect lists, but did receive a B- grade from John Sickels, which was the grade he ended off on in his top 200 list. That’s an implied valuation of $6.5M. One of those might have to be added on to get a deal done with Wong and Kelly. Zac Gallen was only ranked a C+ before the season by Sickels, but might have vaulted himself into that group as he’s dominated High-A to the tune of a 2.13 FIP over 56 innings in 2017.

Otherwise, maybe the Cardinals could make it happen by instead adding on Luke Weaver and Jack Flaherty. After dazzling with a 2.31 FIP over 63 innings at Double-A, Jack Flaherty has probably raised his valuation to something better than the $12.3M listed here. Maybe they could get away with Wong, Weaver and Dakota Hudson instead.

The 2017 NCAA college baseball tournament kicked off Friday, commencing the regional round at 16 sites across the country. The Kentucky Wildcats are hosting their first-round tilt in Lexington, and they have the early game against the Ohio Bobcats. Bobcats vs. Wildcats is what we’re dealing with here.

Lewis immediately adds upside to the Twins’ farm system. He’s a 6’2, 190-pound combination of tools that leaves scouts drooling. At the plate, he offers impressive power, and in the field his speed stands out. Arm strength may be his biggest question mark as a young shortstop, but it’s not expected to prevent him from sticking at the position.

The Twins did not pick the consensus No. 1 player in the class, however. Baseball America and MLB Pipeline both rate Lewis as the fifth-best prospect this year behind McKay, Greene, Kyle Wright, and MacKenzie Gore. Lewis is an undeniably good prospect, but it’s a little bit of a surprise that the Twins passed on McKay and Greene.

If there’s an Achilles’ heel here, it’s the Aggies defense, which has been at times a liability to an otherwise sound ball club in other departments. A&M had a few costly errors in the super regionals opener, which allowed Davidson to get on top of them in the early going.

As for the pitching staff, it appears that big-time ace, Brigham Hill, has been moved into the bullpen in favor of Corbin Martin. But that shouldn’t trouble Aggie fans, since Martin is more than capable of eating innings and holding the score down. Closer Cason Sherrod can touch into the 90s with his fastball, as can right-hander Mitchell Kilkenny.

David Ortiz isn’t coming back. Let’s just get that out of the way.

I … look, that’s not the point. He retired. He’s found every shrine in Breath of the Wild, and he’s watched every episode of John from Cincinnati. But there’s still so much left to do. He’s not coming back, and it’s irresponsible for anyone to suggest as much.

On Saturday, McKay won the Dick Howser Award, given annually to the top player in college baseball.

In the nightcap, junior right-hander Alex Faedo, drafted on Monday by the Detroit Tigers in the first round with the 18th overall pick, will start for the Gators against TCU.

Not every game is perfect, but we’re finding ways to win,” Faedo told reporters on Friday. That’s exactly how our season’s been. It makes it that much sweeter.

The College World Series is a double-elimination format until the top two teams are determined. Then things shift to a best-of-three championship final. Sunday’s winners will do battle again on Tuesday night, while the losers on Sunday will play an elimination game on Tuesday.

Since Bartlett’s 2007 season, the Twins have had 13 different seasons from players who spent more than 75 percent of their time at short. They’ve combined for two-and-a-half wins in those 10 seasons, with almost half of that total coming from Jorge Polanco this season. Sheesh.

This is all compounded by the fact that the Twins traded Johan Santana, one of the best pitchers in baseball at the time, for Carlos Gomez, who was then flipped for J.J. Hardy, who could have solved this problem for most of the last decade. Except he was flipped for Brett Jacobson and Jim Hoey after a season. They played the worst game of One Red Paperclip I’ve ever seen.

With the No. 1 pick in the 2017 MLB Draft, the Minnesota Twins selected high school shortstop Royce Lewis. The team passed on Louisville two-way star Brendan McKay, high school pitcher Hunter Greene, and others to add Lewis to its farm system.

This is the third time ever that the Twins have had the top overall pick. They also selected pitcher Tim Belcher in 1983 and catcher Joe Mauer in 2001.

Kentucky carried a commanding 4-0 lead over Ohio into the top of the sixth inning, with starting ace, Sean Hjelle, dominating the Bobcats lineup from the get-go. Ohio needs to win if it wants to avoid the losers bracket in the Lexington regional, and so the Bobcats bench brought out a RALLY PENGUIN to help spur a comeback:

Nigel is a good penguin, what with him traveling to Lexington in early June to aid Ohio’s tournament run. Nigel is certainly feeling the heat here in the northern hemisphere, especially so since temperatures are reaching up into the mid-80s in Lexington on Friday.

Here then is our first instance of college baseball bench shenanigans in this year’s tournament and a kindred spirit to Wright State’s mounted deer head during 2016’s CWS. Never change, college baseball bench antics.

For me, though, I’m going to look at this as the Curse of Matt Bush because it’s a little more recent. The Padres could have selected any amateur player in the country, and they passed over Justin Verlander to select Bush, who only found success after traveling to Hell and back to reemerge as a reliever. But if you want to say true to the theme of the post, the Padres also passed on one of the consensus top talents, Stephen Drew, because of money and borasophobia. It’s not like they missed out on a Hall of Famer, but note that the Diamondbacks squeaked into the boring category. The Padres would kill for the boring category.

The Houston Astros are 6-1 straight up and on the runline in their last seven games. The Astros will try to stay hot in a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics, starting with the series opener Tuesday night.

Houston is a -152 home favorite at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Mike Fiers will take the mound for the home team facing Sean Manaea and the Athletics as +142 underdog.

The Astros are running away with the AL West, entering the Tuesday night game with the best record in the majors at 52-25 and a 13-game lead over Texas and Los Angeles.

Houston has won six of its last seven games with all six of those wins coming by at least three runs. Interestingly, the Astros have been much better on the road than at home this season at 29-9, compared to 23-16 at home. They will try to improve on that home record this week.

The Yankees are 0-4 in Masahiro Tanaka’s last four starts per the OddsShark MLB Database. Tanaka entered this season with a career ERA of 3.12 and WHIP of 1.04, but has struggled this year with a 6.34 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP in 11 starts.

Since kicking off the month of May with a pedestrian 8-10 record, the Red Sox have heated up over their last 14 games with a record of 10-4. Boston has hit the ball very well over that stretch averaging 6.2 runs per game. Pomeranz has bounced back nicely from a three-game slump with quality starts and wins in each of his last two games. The Red Sox are 3-7 in their last 10 games at Yankee Stadium.