Lange goes the
distance as LSU downs Fullerton
By Phil Stanton
CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder
@roadtoomaha
OMAHA,
Neb. - The last eight innings went
much better than the first.
Freshman Alex Lange (right) gave up three runs
in the first inning and none after that in leading
second-seeded LSU to a 5-3 victory over Cal State Fullerton
Tuesday afternoon in an elimination game at the 2015 College
World Series in front of 18,751 fans at TD Ameritrade Park.
The Tigers (54-11) will play on Thursday at 7
p.m. CT against the loser of tonight's TCU-Vanderbilt contest.
The Titans end their season at 39-24.
After LSU failed to score in the top of the
first, Lange struggled in the bottom of the frame. Tyler Stieb
had a one-out single for Fullerton and streaked home on a
triple to right center by David Olmedo-Barrera. A base hit by
Jerrod Bravo drove in Olmedo-Barrera for the second run of the
inning. Bravo moved to third on a single by Tanner Pinkston
and scored on a perfect safety squeeze by Dalton Blaser to
give the Titans a 3-0 advantage.
What was the difference in Lange from a
hitter's point of view?
"Fastballs," Olmedo-Barrera said. "That's what
he threw in the beginning. We were really committed to that.
After that, I think we got away from it a little bit when he
started throwing more off-speed. We chased it. And none of it
was really for a strike. They stayed with their approach
better than we did today."
Lange allowed four hits and three runs in the
first with one walk. He threw 25 pitches in that first inning,
16 for strikes.
"I wasn't really nervous or amped up," Lange
said. "I left a couple of pitches up and they do what good
hitters do, they hit the ball. I took a step back and
regrouped in the dugout and really focused on I needed to go
out there and execute my pitches, just hit my spots where
Coach Dunn and Kade call them and leave it up to the defense.
They've been great all year. Pitching with that defense behind
me makes it real easy."
Over the next eight frames, Lange gave up two
hits and no runs with one walk and 10 strikeouts.
"He put the team on his shoulders after a rough
first inning," LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said of Lange. "I
thought he made good pitches in the first inning and they did
a good job against him. The three-hole hitter smoked that one
in the gap and then they had a fortuitous chopper through the
right side to set something up. They executed a safety
squeeze. They did some good things. It wasn't so much that he
was making bad pitches.
"But I just think the true character of a
player shows when they get knocked on the ground like he did
in the first inning, and then he just regrouped, never lost
his confidence, never lost his aggressiveness. He continued
pitching and the next eight innings I think they had two hits
against him. He ended up striking out 10."
It was the second complete game of the season
for Lange. He went the distance in a 2-0 win over UNCW in the
second round of the Baton Rouge Regional.
"I know we have two of the best relievers in
the country in [Zac] Person and [Parker] Bugg out there,"
Lange said, "and I know they have my back if I run into
trouble. When you're out there, you want to finish it and that
was my mindset: I'm going to finish this game."
A Missouri native, Lange enjoyed pitching close
to home.
"This was a blast," Lange said. "This was a lot
of fun. Growing up only three hours away in Kansas City, it's
something that every kid dreams of, to play in the College
World Series. And being able to go out there and play in it is
a dream come true. It was a lot of fun especially with the
group of guys we have, how close-knit we are and just being
able to share the moment with them and moving on. That's
pretty cool. So I'm really happy to experience that. But I'm
more happy that we won and that we're moving on."
LSU
responded offensively in the top of the third. Alex Bregman
(right) had a leadoff single, moved to second on a base hit by
Jake Fraley and scored on a single by Kade Scivicque. With one
away, a base hit by Chris Sciambra plated Fraley with the
second run. That ended the day for Fullerton starter Connor
Seabold as Miles Chambers took over on the mound. Andrew
Stevenson had a sacrifice fly and Mark Laird added an RBI
single as the Tigers took a 4-3 edge.
The Tigers added an insurance in the seventh.
Scivicque had a leadoff double to left and was sacrificed to
third by Conner Hale. Maxwell Gibbs relieved Chambers and
pinch-hitter Danny Zardon hit the first pitch to left for a
sacrifice fly, plating Scivicque to give LSU a 5-3 lead.
Bregman went 4 for 5
batting in the leadoff spot for the first time this season. He
matched his career high for hits in a game with four. Bregman
led off an inning with a hit three times, but only scored
once. Five times the Tigers got their leadoff hitter on, but
only two scored.
"If I'm hitting first or ninth, as long as
we're winning I'm happy," Bregman said. "I felt comfortable
out there. I was trying to square balls up and put together
quality at-bats and find ways on base and try to create some
offense. We wanted to get our swagger back offensively. We've
had a really good offense all year long, and it's coming."
Scivicque finished with
two hits, two runs and one RBI. Laird went 3 for 4 with an RBI
for the Tigers.
LSU finally got a win at TD Ameritrade Park.
The Tigers went 0-2 in the 2013 College World Series and lost
10-3 to TCU this past Sunday in their initial game in the 2015
College World Series.
"Obviously, the understatement of the day is
that we're so happy to get a win finally at TD Ameritrade
Ballpark," Mainieri said. "Beautiful ballpark and a wonderful
city. But it was like it was a curse on the LSU Tigers for a
couple of years. Just to get a victory is very relieving,"
Bravo and Pinkston both had two hits for the
Titans.
"We got beat," Fullerton head coach Rick
Vanderhook said. "That's the way I look at it. We didn't lose.
We got beat. We came out and put a little charge on them. And
then kind of died offensively. And they had one inning where
they did about the same thing but extended it a little longer.
"So we played two games here and didn't lose
one. We got beat twice. And I can live with that. We didn't
beat ourselves at all. They were more physical than us. So
we've talked about that a little bit. We need to change a few
things. But flat out, LSU beat us."