Gators and Tigers Face Off in College World Series Rubber Match

After splitting games one and two of the College World Series Final, the LSU Tigers and Florida Gators will meet once again on Monday night for the third and final game of the series. The Gators will be looking for their second national championship in five years while the Tigers will be hoping to take home their first since 2009. 

Game one was an instant classic that featured late game heroics and took eleven innings to sort out a winner. LSU found themselves down 3-2 in the eighth inning before third baseman Tommy White hit a solo homerun to tie things up. The teams would trade scoreless innings until the top of eleventh when Cade Beloso put the Tigers ahead 4-3 with a solo shot of his own. LSU closed the door in the bottom of the eleventh to take a 1-0 series lead.

The momentum seemed to be firmly on the Tigers’ side after a dramatic game one victory, but that feeling quickly changed on Sunday. LSU jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the third inning, and it was all down hill from there for the Tigers. The Gators responded with twenty-three straight runs, a scoring outburst that would make the Florida football team jealous. UF hit six home runs and racked up 23 hits on their way to a 24-4 win to even the series and force a winner take all game on Monday night.

LSU will look to bounce back after Sunday’s embarrassing loss and will have a major contributor back to help. Paul Skenes, the Tigers’ star pitcher and the projected number one overall pick in the 2023 draft, will be available to some extent on three days of rest. Skenes will likely be on a tight pitch limit given the lack of time since his last start that saw him throw well over 100 pitches, but even 3-4 innings from the LSU ace could make a huge difference. 

Across the diamond, the Gators will look to keep the bats hot and build on their 24-run outburst in game two. The biggest thing to come out of Sunday’s blowout win for the Gators was the breakout performance from their struggling stars, Wyatt Langford and Jac Caglianone. The two were a combined 5-33 in Omaha this year before going 8-11 with three homeruns and eleven RBI’s in game two.

If the top of the UF lineup can carry over their game two success to game three, LSU is going to have their hands full. The Tigers and Gators will battle one last time on Monday night with first pitch coming at 7PM on ESPN. The winner will leave Omaha with the College World Series title and bragging rights over one of their biggest SEC rivals.

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