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College World Series: LSU and Florida make it an all-SEC finals

LSU's Michael Papierski follows through on his three-run home run against Oregon State during the second inning Saturday.
(Nati Harnik / Associated Press)
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Caleb Gilbert held No. 1 national seed Oregon State to two hits in 7 1/3 innings, Michael Papierski homered from both sides of the plate and Louisiana State beat the Beavers 6-1 on Saturday to reach the College World Series finals.

The Tigers (52-18) won their third straight elimination game, including back-to-back victories over Oregon State. The Beavers (56-6) had a pair of 23-game winning streaks and finished the season with a .903 winning percentage — the best since Texas’ mark of .908 in 1982.

The Tigers beat the Beavers 3-1 on Friday to force the second game.

Gilbert surrendered an infield single and walk before Michael Gretler homered in the seventh. He struck out a career-high seven in his longest outing in his two seasons at LSU. Zack Hess gave up just one hit the rest of the way.

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Papierski became the first player to homer twice in a CWS game since TCU’s Bryan Holaday in 2010. He went deep from the left side off Bryce Fehmel in the second inning and the right side off Brandon Eisert in the fourth.

The Beavers managed only a season-low two hits on Friday and the three against Gilbert and Hess on Saturday. They went the first 17 innings Friday and Saturday without having a leadoff batter reach base.

Before Saturday, Oregon State hadn’t lost consecutive games since a five-game losing streak from May 6-13, 2016, and hadn’t been shut out since April 30, 2016.

Fourth-seeded LSU bounced back from a 13-1 loss to Oregon State on Monday and reached the championship round for the first time since winning the national title in 2009. The Tigers will open the best-of-three finals Monday against Florida.

The Gators’ Alex Faedo pitched three-hit ball for 7 1/3 shutout innings in a second straight strong performance against Texas Christian to help Florida moved to a 3-0 win Saturday night.

No. 3 national seed Florida (50-19) is seeking its first baseball title. TCU (50-18) had beaten the Gators 9-2 on Friday to force the winner-take-all bracket final and the teams’ third meeting in a week.

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Faedo (9-2) struck out 11, just as he did last Sunday in a 3-0 win over the Horned Frogs. Michael Byrne finished for his 18th save.

The Gators had struggled on offense since they arrived in Omaha, but with Faedo holding down the Frogs they were able to muster enough against Jared Janczak (9-2).

Fehmel was a surprise starter for the Beavers. Coach Pat Casey said Friday that the plan was to throw Drew Rasmussen, but he and his staff changed their minds because Fehmel was effective against LSU on Monday and they wanted Rasmussen available for relief. Fehmel was coming off four days’ rest since holding LSU to one run and two hits over eight innings in the Beavers’ 12-run win. Fehmel got knocked out of the game Saturday with one out in the third and down 4-0.

The Beavers had made up a four-run deficit in a 6-5 win over Cal State Fullerton last Saturday, but Gilbert and Hess made that a nearly impossible task.

Papierski opened the scoring with his three-run drive into the right-field seats, and he made it 5-0 in the fourth when he homered to left.

Beau Jordan homered in the sixth off Rasmussen to make it 6-0.

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