6/24 College World Series Open Game Thread

Yesterday the OSU Beavers were defeated 3-1 by LSU thanks to an incredible pitching performance from 33rd overall pick Alex Lange. Lange needed to be perfect and he mostly was, painting corners and stymying Beavers hitters over 7.1 masterful innings. His only trouble came in the third inning, when he walked in a run with the bases loaded. It could have been worse for Lange, though; this Steven Kwan hit was ruled foul, although replay shows it was clearly fair.

That would have tied the game up for sure and almost definitely given the Beavers a lead. Instead, Lange escaped with one run scored and OSU would not threaten again. Freshman fireballer Zack Hess came in to close out the game and he was terrifying.

In the evening game, TCU romped all over sixth-seeded Florida, 9-2. The game was relatively close, at 4-2, until TCU exploded in the sixth, collecting four runs on just two hits. In an ironic twist, this game featured a hit to almost the exact same place as Kwan’s in the OSU game, but this time it was called fair.

Today’s games:

LSU vs. Oregon State, 12 PM, ESPN

Probable pitchers: Freshman Bryce Fehmel will get the ball for OSU. LSU will use Cody Gilbert, who is technically a reliever but one of their better pitchers. He looked untouchable for two innings in OSU-LSU’s first matchup after replacing starter Eric Walker, who left the game with forearm tightness, but after some defensive miscues, the Beavs took advantage and jumped all over LSU’s bullpen.

TCU vs. Florida, 5 PM, ESPN

Probable pitchers: Both teams are likely to use their aces in a rematch of the first time they met up, with Alex Faedo getting the start for Florida and Jared Janczak for TCU. Alex Faedo pitched seven shutout innings in that game and will need to be that good again to quell a TCU lineup that includes the powerful Evan Skoug.