Advertisement

College World Series: Jared Poche’ sets LSU wins mark, knocks Florida State out

LSU's Jake Slaughter (5) celebrates his three-run home run in the second inning in a College World Series game against Florida State, Wednesday.
(Nati Harnik / Associated Press)
Share

Jared Poche’ became LSU’s career wins leader, Jake Slaughter hit a three-run homer, and the Tigers eliminated Florida State from the College World Series with a 7-4 win Wednesday night.

LSU (50-18) advanced to the Bracket 1 final against No. 1 national seed Oregon State, which beat the Tigers 13-1 on Monday. The Tigers would have to beat the Beavers on Friday and again Saturday to reach the best-of-three finals next week.

Florida State (46-23) will go home without a national title for a 22nd time, and 16th under Mike Martin, who completed his 38th year as coach. No program has as many CWS appearances without winning the championship.

Advertisement

Poche’ (12-3), making his school-record 69th career start, won for the 39th time to break the record Scott Schultz set from 1992-95. He left after Quincy Nieporte and Cal Raleigh homered on consecutive pitches in the ninth. Zack Hess struck out the side for his third save.

Slaughter, making his first CWS start and batting out of the 9-hole, barely cleared the left-center fence when he connected on a hanging breaking ball from FSU starter Cole Sands (6-4) in the second inning. The homer, which made it 5-0 and ended Sands’ night, was the freshman’s first since March 15 and third of the season.

Slaughter, who had been a pinch runner and pinch hitter in the Tigers’ first two CWS games, got the start in place of Nick Coomes and also came up big on defense. He somehow kept his foot on the bag as he laid out to catch second baseman Cole Freeman’s relay to complete an inning-ending double play in the third, and he snagged a low liner off Jackson Lueck’s bat in the fourth.

Andrew Karp struck out seven and limited the Tigers to two singles over 5 1/3 shutout innings in relief of Sands. The Tigers tacked on a couple insurance runs in the ninth against Drew Carlton.

Advertisement