OMAHA, Neb. – The Tigers’ bats backed up a strong pitching performance by freshman Alex Lange as No. 2-seed LSU eliminated Cal State Fullerton with a 5-3 victory in the 2015 Men’s College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
Lange pitched a complete game for his twelfth win of the year, giving up three runs on six hits and striking out 10. He allowed just two hits and three baserunners after the first inning, when the Titans put up a three-run spot.
LSU took their first and only lead of the game on a barrage of hits in the third. Three Tigers led off the inning with hits to left field, and Chris Sciambra followed after one out with a single to right. Andrew Stevenson tied the game at 3-3 with a sac fly that scored Kade Scivicque, and Mark Laird gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead with a single to right field that plated Sciambra.
They added an insurance run in the seventh. Scivicque led off with a double off the left-center wall.
He moved to third on a sac bunt, and pinch hitter Danny Zardon drove him in on a sacrifice fly to left.
Alex Bregman led the Tigers with a 4-for-5 day that included four singles toward left center. Mark Laird had three hits and an RBI.
Starter Connor Seabold (5-4) took the loss for the Titans. He was responsible for four of LSU’s runs in 2.1 innings of work.
Fullerton opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. The Titans mounted four straight hits and a squeeze bunt to plate three early runs. David Olmedo-Barrera hit a triple into the right-center gap that scored Tyler Stieb. Jerrod Bravo hit an RBI single past the shortstop, and Dalton Blaser laid a bunt down the first base line to score Bravo from third.
LSU (54-11) will meet the loser of Vanderbilt-TCU in an elimination game on Thursday at 7 p.m. Cal State Fullerton finishes the season at 39-25.
