University of Florida claims first national baseball championship

There’s finally joy in Gator Nation after Florida twice turns back SEC rival Louisiana State to claim its first national baseball championship Tuesday night at TD Ameritrade Park

Florida sweeps Bayou Tigers 4-3 Monday and 6-1 Tuesday in clash of the SEC rivals in Omaha, Neb.

By Arnie Leshin, Santa Fe Today | Courtesy photo NCAA

The path to this year’s 71^st annual NCAA college baseball Division I World Series had many twists and turns, bumps, surprises, disappointments, but for the University of Florida, it brought all it cared about, and that was winning its first championship in the sport.

National champions in other sports that include basketball, football and track and field, the 3^rd seeded Gators finally reeled this one in by winning twice over SEC rival Louisiana State, the deciding one, 6-1, Tuesday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.

Winding up at 52-19, this was where the program wanted to be when it advanced past the region and super region that it hosted. First it disposed of Texas Christian twice in the Saturday semifinals of the double-elimination, while the 4^th seeded Tigers (52-20) did the same against top-ranked Oregon State.

SEC versus SEC. The two tied for the regular-season title, the Gators took 2-of-3 over LSU in Gainesville back at the end of March, and now they were paired as the two finalist from the 64-school field.

Game one Monday night was tense and exciting before another capacity crowd of 25,318. Florida received a stellar six innings from starter Brady Singer and held off the Tigers, 4-3.

The next night, the Gators had to go with what they left after they and LSU had to play four games in five days. So head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, in his 10th season, called on freshman right-hander Tyler Dyson, who had been a relief specialist, responded by limiting the Tigers to three hits in six frames in only his second start of the campaign before a cheering turnout of 25,537.

It came down to Florida’s pitching, timely hitting, base running and outstanding defense in its third trip to the finals. Eight other times, it got to Omaha, but none brought on a celebration before Gator Nation finally carried off the championship trophy in its 103^rd year of the program.

It’s summer, so campus life wasn’t the usual. And they never celebrate in the nearby swamps. But no doubt there were plenty of happy, celebrating Gator supporters throughout the land.

It was 1-0 after one when Florida jumped on senior right-handed starter Jared Poche’, LSU’s all-time mound winner with 118 victories, and he was fortunate to get away with only one run scoring. He walked one and allowed back-to-back singles before striking out the last two.

It became 2-0 when the Gators capitalized on LSU errors in the second. The Tigers made an unprecedented three in all after a season of limited miscues.

It was the same score in the seventh inning when the much-talked-about “interference call” brought an abrupt half after the lead was cut in half.

Right-handed senior Michael Byrne had come on for Dyson (4-0) and was greeted by a single and an RBI double.

Next came the “call” when a ground ball to second baseman Deacon Liput was tossed to shortstop Dalton Guthrie at second, the tying run scored but was quickly overturned when the umpire ruled that base runner Jake Slaughter had created interference by sliding past the base and making contact with Guthrie.

LSU head coach Paul Mainieri sped to the field and questioned the umpire’s call. The Tiger faithful, which included about 3 quarters of the crowd, got even louder, some in the stands also tossed objects onto the field, but the decision stayed, base runner Josh Smith had to return to third, and that’s how the trying run was untied and LSU still trailed 2-1.

The Tigers, who have won all seven World Series finals they have appeared in, made more bids in the last two innings, but fell short both times. In the seventh they put two on with no out, but Bryne got a sparkling catch from JJ Schwarz in right field, fielded a bouncer back to him and got the second out, and with runners now on second and third, got a long out to centerfield via a shot by Michael Papierski.

Then came the eighth. O’Sullivan, who was going to pitch sophomore right-hander Jackson Kowar if it came to a deciding game on Wednesday, had him warming up when the Tigers threatened again. He was concerned about today, not tomorrow.

So senior Kramer Robertson led-off with a single into right field and took second on a wild pitch. Next, senior Cole Freeman beat Bryne’s throw to first on a bunt. After Bryne struck out sophomore Antoine Duplantis, O’Sullivan quickly brought in Kowar.

He faced junior hard-hitting junior Greg Deichmann, who grounded his first pitch to Schwarz, who smartly threw home to nail Roberson on a close play. Then sophomore Zach Watson, his team’s hottest hitter in the CWS, flew out to left and another threat was answered.

And LSU had no answers remaining after Florida pushed across four runs in the bottom of the eighth. Stellar freshman reliever Zack Hess hit a batter with the bases loaded, Liput hit a two-run single, and Schwarz’ sacrifice fly resulted in the final score.

“They’re a very deserving national champion,” said Mainieri in praise of the Gators. “I’m happy for Kevin. He works hard, has had several teams that maybe were even better than this team, but as disappointed as I am right now, Florida finally got its championship.”

In posting the eighth sweep in the 15 years of the best-of-three finals format, the Gators had been there in 2005 and 2011, but were swept.

All that was missing from this team was consistent offense, but the pitching overshadowed all shortcomings like this.

“Just a gritty group,” said O’Sullivan.

It wasn’t St. Patrick’s Day, but it was certainly his day to rejoice, especially since he made the right move by bringing in Kowar and not thinking about the next day. If it went that far, there weren’t many arms he could call on versus LSU stellar right-handed junior Alex Lange with four days rest.

As is the norm, the Bayou Tigers packed the place. There were constant chants of “L-S-U, L-S-U” and rowdy responses when a call went against them. After the top of the ninth, the purple and gold began to exit.

NOTE: Selected to the All-CWS Team from Florida was outfielder Austin Langworthy and pitchers Alex Faedo and Brady Singer. From LSU, there was catcher Michael Papierski and outfielders Antoine Duplantis and Zach Watson. Faedo was named the Most Outstanding Player after two strong starts against TCU.

The rest of the All team was comprised of Drew Mendoza of Florida State at first base, Nick Madrigal of Oregon State at second, Dylan Busby of FSU at third, Timmy Richardson of Cal State-Fullerton at short, and designated hitter Brendon McKay of Louisville.