OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Kade Anderson pitched a three-hitter in his second straight dominant start, and LSU moved within a win of its second national championship in three years with a 1-0 victory over Coastal Carolina in Game 1 of the College World Series finals Saturday night.
The Chanticleers (56-12) lost for the first time in 27 games and must win Sunday to force a third and deciding game Monday night.
LSU (52-15) made Steve Milam’s RBI single in the first inning stand up with Anderson getting stronger as the game progressed against a Coastal Carolina team that had won its first three CWS games by a combined 24-9.
The lefty, a projected top-three pick in next month’s MLB amateur draft, was just as good as he was in LSU’s CWS opener against Arkansas last weekend. He has allowed one run and six hits and struck out 17 in 16 innings in Omaha.
Against the Chanticleers he struck out 10, but he had to deal with traffic on the basepaths after issuing three of his five walks in the first two innings and hitting two batters. He was up to the challenge. The Chanticleers were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
Anderson (12-1) walked pinch-hitter Domenico Tozzi with two outs in the ninth, prompting a mound visit from pitching coach Nate Yeskie. Anderson then got Wells Sykes to fly out to end the game. Anderson and catcher Luis Hernandez embraced, and then their teammates mobbed them behind the mound.
Anderson worked around two walks in the first inning, got out of the third when Sebastian Alexander was caught stealing third base, and he struck out three in a row after Blagen Pado’s double leading off the fourth.
After he gave up LSU’s early run, Coastal Carolina’s Cameron Flukey (8-2) matched zeroes with Anderson from the second to sixth inning. Flukey limited the Tigers to four hits, walked two and struck out nine before turning the ball over to Dominick Carbone to start the seventh.
The Tigers are 16-0 when they have a lead at any point when Anderson is pitching. It was Anderson’s second shutout of the season.
They’ll try to lock up their eighth national title Sunday.
Coastal Carolina won the national title in its first trip to Omaha in 2016 and is seeking to become the fifth school to win the title in each of its first two trips to the CWS, but the first since Michigan in 1962.
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