LSU’s Cade Beloso homered in the top of the 11th inning to lift LSU to a win over the Gators in Game 1.
WHAT HAPPENED: LSU defeated Florida 4-3 in Game 1 of the best-of-three College World Series championship series on Saturday night in Omaha. Tigers designated hitter Cade Beloso snapped a 3-3 tie with a home run off UF closer Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499> to lead off the top of the 11th inning. The Gators trailed 2-0 before tying the game in the fifth inning on Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/15514>’s RBI grounder to second. The Gators took a 3-2 lead in the sixth on a two-out solo home run from catcher BT Riopelle<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/bt-riopelle/15503>. LSU answered in the top of the eighth on a Tommy White solo home run off lefty Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/15513>, who was otherwise unscathed in 3 1/3 innings in relief of starter Brandon Sproat<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-sproat/15508>. However, the Gators squandered some scoring opportunities late in the game and struck out 20 times.
PLAY OF THE GAME: From the Gators’ perspective, Riopelle’s home run was the bright spot and a momentary stroke of good fortune that made the Orange & Blue faithful consider the likelihood of an improbable victory. LSU had chance after chance in the early innings to blow the game open, but the Tigers stranded 13 runners through six innings. When Riopelle crushed a pitch from LSU starter Ty Floyd into the right-field seats in the bottom of the sixth, it felt like momentum was on Florida’s side. But a pair of swings by White and Beloso had the final say.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: So much of the discussion prior to Friday night’s game was LSU ace Paul Skenes likely being unavailable in the series because of his 120-pitch outing in Thursday’s win over Wake Forest. LSU right-hander Floyd apparently turned into Skenes, striking out a CWS Final-record 17 Gators over eight innings. Floyd used his fastball high in the zone to consistently strike out UF hitters and set the tempo of the game.
STAGGERING STAT: Floyd recorded seven consecutive outs via the strikeout starting with a K of Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/15489> to lead off the sixth. The only batter to reach was Riopelle on his go-ahead homer after Floyd struck out Caglianone and Josh Rivera<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/josh-rivera/15504> to start the sixth.
KEY MOMENT: The Gators had an opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the 10th with runners on first and second and Wyatt Langford<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/wyatt-langford/15497> and Caglianone coming to the plate. Langford drilled a pitch from LSU reliever Riley Cooper to left field, but Tigers outfielder Josh Pearson jumped to snag Langford’s line drive for the second out. Caglianone then flied out to end the inning.
BY THE NUMBERS: 6 — Hits for Riopelle in the NCAA Tournament. 5 — Home runs hit by Riopelle in the NCAA Tournament.
HE SAID IT: “You’ve just got to pick up and win tomorrow’s game and put ourself in position to play Monday. It comes down to a pitch here, a pitch there. Our boys will be ready to go tomorrow. This is an unbelievable environment for our guys to play in.” — Gators assistant coach Chuck Jeroloman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/chuck-jeroloman/1552> on postgame radio show
NOTABLES
* Florida lost its first game since June 3 vs. Texas Tech, ending an eight-game postseason winning streak.
* UF has not dropped consecutive games since May 6-7 at Texas A&M.
* The Gators are playing in the College World Series Finals for the fourth time in team history (2005, 2011, 2017, 2023).
* Florida is playing in its 13th College World Series and eighth in the Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> era: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2023.
* The Gators are now 24-25 all-time at the CWS and 128-84 in the NCAA Tournament.
* Florida stranded 17 Tigers on base on Saturday vs. LSU.
* In his final start in Orange & Blue, Sproat pitched four-plus innings with two earned runs on six hits and five walks while fanning seven.
* Riopelle put Florida ahead, 3-2, with his 18th home run of the season in the sixth inning.
* Five of Riopelle’s six hits in the NCAA Tournament have been home runs.
* Florida has now swatted a program-record 137 home runs this season.
* The Gators have launched eight of the 24 home runs at the 2023 College World Series.
* Florida has struck out 714 batters in 595 innings – translating to 10.8 per nine innings, which would mark a new program record.
* The Gators have 658 hits through 69 games (9.5 hits/game).
* The Gators have scored in 43.0% of batted innings (244 of 568).
* Florida is now 52-67-1 all-time vs. LSU including 10-16 at neutral sites.
* The Gators are 23-20 in the series under O’Sullivan and 5-5 at neutral sites.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
Opening statement…
“Well, it was, obviously, a well-played game. We got off to a tough start on the mound. We ran into a lot of offensive counts. But Brandon was able to pitch his way out of it. Obviously, his pitch count got up there. I thought Cade came in and did an outstanding job. Obviously, he made that one mistake on the 0-2 count, but other than that he pitched great. And I thought Brandon pitched great. It came down to one pitch. Offensively, we struck out 20 times tonight. They only walked two. I just think our swings were a little bit big tonight. And we’ve handled the moment really well. Tonight, offensively I think we kind of got caught up in it a little bit and that kind of resulted in the strikeouts. But with that being said, we got Hurston going tomorrow, and we’ll do everything we can win tomorrow and force a Game 3. That simple.”
On the team bounding back tomorrow…
“Yeah, I think it’s hard right now. Once they go back to the hotel, get a shower, get something to eat – we’ll have them ready to play tomorrow. This team has shown fight the entire year. We’ve had a situation in Regionals we had to win three in a row, and we were able to do that. We’ll need some other guys to step up in the pen. But we certainly feel confident that they will. We’ve got a bunch of guys that have not even stepped on the mound yet. But they’ll be ready to play tomorrow.”
On the offensive approach against Floyd…
“Well, I think it was a combination of things. We had a game plan coming in. And he threw good. I mean, it’s really that simple. But from our standpoint, when you look back, there were some swings with two strikes that were maybe a little bit too big, swings that we hadn’t taken in the past or in a while. But I thought we took some fastballs on the outer half of the plate, early in the count, to get us behind the count. He threw just enough breaking balls to keep us off his fastball. And we chased a bunch of up fastballs and he pitched really good. But in games like this, it comes down to one at-bat, one pitch. They walked two guys in 11 innings. We walked eight. And it’s part of it. It wasn’t our best night, but we played 11 innings and lost by a pitch on a 1-0 count. And we didn’t play our best baseball, but the message tomorrow is, you know, we’ve got nothing to lose at this point. We’re in the College World Series and playing in the Finals. We lost by a run. Everybody’s disappointed, but we can’t let this leak into tomorrow.”
UP NEXT: Florida and LSU meet on Sunday afternoon at 3 ET in Game 2. If LSU wins, the Tigers are national champions. If Florida wins, the teams will play Game 3 on Monday night at Charles Schwab Field.
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