COLLEGE WORLD SERIES | Sunday’s games
Louisville builds big lead to topple Texas A&M
Omaha, NEB.
Colby Fitch drove in four runs, Sam Bordner shut down Texas A&M after it cut Louisville’s five-run lead to one, and the Cardinals beat the Aggies 8-4 on Sunday for their first win in six College World Series games.
The Cardinals (53-10) used six singles and a walk to build a 5-0 lead in the second inning against Corbin Martin (7-4). Texas A&M chipped away against national player of the year Brendan McKay (11-3) to make it 5-4 before Bordner entered.
Bordner pitched three innings of no-hit relief, and the Cardinals added two runs in the bottom of the sixth and another on Fitch’s RBI double in the eighth.
Louisville had gone 0-5 over its last three appearances in Omaha. The Aggies (41-22) have lost seven straight CWS games.
The Cardinals knocked Martin out of the game in the second, and the Aggies called on season-long ace Brigham Hill to settle things down.
It was a bit of a surprise when Aggies coach Rob Childress announced Friday that Martin would get the start. Hill, the Washington Nationals’ fifth-round draft pick, has been A&M’s top starter since April 2016, but Childress indicated Martin had been the team’s best pitcher the last three weeks.
Hill gave up no runs until the sixth, but the Aggies’ offense couldn’t overcome the big lead Louisville built. No team has overcome a five-run deficit to win at the CWS since the event moved to TD Ameritrade Park in 2011.
McKay lasted five innings, matching the shortest outing of the season by the first college player taken in the draft. The No. 4 overall pick by Tampa Bay allowed four runs on eight hits. He walked two and struck out six.
Bordner continued to flash his postseason dominance. The sophomore has given up no runs and one hit in his last 11 innings over four appearances.
Florida’s Alex Faedo two-hits TCU for shutout victory
OMAHA, NEB.
Alex Faedo limited TCU to two singles and struck out 11 in seven innings, and Florida posted its first College World Series shutout since 1991 with a 3-0 win Sunday night.
Faedo, the Detroit Tigers’ first-round draft pick this month, had at least one strikeout each inning and retired 10 in a row before turning the game over to closer Michael Byrne to start the eighth.
Faedo, who mixed his slider with a mid-90s fastball during a dominant 106-pitch performance, has been part of seven of the Gators’ nine shutouts this season. This shutout was Florida’s second in its 36 all-time CWS games and first in Omaha since a 5-0 win over Florida State 26 years ago.
Jared Janczak (9-1) struggled in his four innings and lost for the first time this season. Byrne worked out of two mini jams and earned his 17th save.
JJ Schwarz, Christian Hicks and Nelson Maldonado each drove in runs for the Gators (48-18).
Florida is in the CWS for the sixth time in eight years and TCU for the fourth year in a row. This was the first time they’ve met.
The Gators came in having lost three straight one-run CWS games, and six of their eight losses in Omaha since 2011 have been by one run.
Last year, Faedo was a hard-luck loser in an elimination game against Texas Tech, allowing two runs, walking none and striking out nine. Sunday, he walked two in addition to giving up an infield single and base hit to left.
The Frogs squandered their few chances. Catcher Mike Rivera threw out Cam Warner twice, picking him off at first in the second inning and when he tried to take second on a ball in the dirt in the fourth. Zach Humphreys and Evan Skoug, the Frogs’ leading home run hitter, both struck out with the bases loaded in the third. Faedo picked off Nolan Brown at first to end the fourth.
TCU didn’t have another batter reach base until Connor Wanhanen bunted for a hit to open the eighth against Byrne. Wanhanen got to third when Ryan Merrill singled, but Byrne struck out pinch hitter Evan Williams to end the threat. In the ninth, after Warner doubled with one out, Byrne struck out Brown and got Elliott Barzilli to ground out.
Janczak lost for the second time in three career CWS starts. The sophomore entered the game having allowed a total of three runs over four starts covering 221/3 innings since he missed a month because of shoulder soreness. Other than pitching three innings in his return from injury, Sunday marked his shortest outing of the season.
Associated Press