OMAHA, Neb. — LSU staved off elimination at the College World Series for the second time in two days, and now the Tigers are right where they expected to be all along.
Cade Beloso hit a go-ahead three-run homer, freshman Griffin Herring pitched 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in his longest outing, and No. 5 national seed LSU forced a second bracket final with a 5-2 victory over No. 1 Wake Forest on Wednesday night.
The winner of the rematch Thursday night will advance to play No. 2 Florida in the best-of-three championship series that starts Saturday. The Gators clinched a spot with a 3-2 win over TCU earlier Wednesday.
“We expect to be playing important baseball in June,” Tigers coach Jay Johnson said. “We play every game like we’re playing important baseball in June. Like, the Tuesday on March 22nd against McNeese is a playoff game to us. The thought process behind that is if you do that all year long, then you can just stay in character when you get to the postseason.”
Wake Forest (54-11) will look to bounce back from its first loss in its eight NCAA tournament games. The Demon Deacons, who have not lost consecutive games this season, are trying to reach the championship round in their first CWS appearance since the school’s 1955 team won the national title.