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.