Faedo fine again; Florida tops TCU

OMAHA, Neb. — Alex Faedo pitched three-hit ball for 71/3 shutout innings in a second consecutive strong performance against TCU, and Florida moved to the College World Series finals with a 3-0 victory Saturday night.

No. 3 national seed Florida (50-19) will play SEC rival LSU in the best-of-three finals beginning Monday night. Fourth-seeded LSU (52-18) advanced with a 6-1 victory over No. 1 Oregon State on Saturday.

TCU (50-18) had beaten the Gators 9-2 on Friday to force the winner-take-all bracket final and the teams’ third meeting in a week.

Faedo (9-2) struck out 11, just as he did last Sunday in a 3-0 victory over the Horned Frogs. Michael Byrne finished for his 18th save.

The Gators had struggled on offense since they arrived in Omaha, but with Faedo holding down the Frogs they were able to muster enough against Jared Janczak (9-2).

Austin Langworthy doubled and scored on a groundout in the second inning, Christian Hicks doubled in a run in the fifth, and he scored in the seventh when he tripled and came home on Deacon Liput’s grounder that deflected off first base.

Faedo reached for his right calf in apparent pain after delivering a pitch to Josh Watson in the seventh, and he grabbed the calf again when he struck Watson out to end the inning. The Detroit Tigers’ firstround draft pick came out for the eighth and got a groundout, but he left after Austen Wade singled.

Zach Humphreys greeted Byrne with a base hit, but the star closer struck out Evan Skoug and got Cam Warner to fly out to end the threat.

Janczak and Faedo were matched up for the second time. Janczak, who struggled against the Gators last Sunday, struck out 7, walked none and scattered 7 hits in 7 innings.

Skoug singled off Faedo in the first, and the Florida ace walked three in the first four innings before finding a groove. He picked off Ryan Merrill at first in the fourth inning and retired nine of the next 10 batters.

Florida will be playing for its first national championship in baseball. TCU has made it to Omaha four consecutive years, and a fifth time overall, and is yet to reach the finals.

FLORIDA 3, TCU O

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