June 16, 2015

College World Series Scores & Schedules

 

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."