College World Series open thread: Florida faces LSU, title on the line

The Florida Gators continue College World Series championship play with Game 2 of the best-of-three final series on deck tonight. Last night, Florida bested LSU, 4-3, to win their first ever CWS finals game.

The Gators will tussle with the Tigers at 8:00 p.m. That game will air on ESPN and be available via streaming through WatchESPN.

Florida is only one win away from their first ever national championship in baseball. But while winning their first outing in the series was no small feat, the path to college baseball supremacy only gets rougher from here.

Andy wrote earlier today about what awaits the Gators tonight, and possibly tomorrow, in the finals, and I won’t rehash his piece here but suggest that you give it a read instead. Florida’s task at hand is to now defeat at least one of LSU’s two ace pitchers, and the Gators will most likely have to do so without either of their own top two starters on the mound.

Florida pitchers Alex Faedo and Brady Singer have been magnificent for the Gators in Omaha, and are big parts of Florida’s continued CWS run. In the duo’s combined 28.1 innings at this year’s CWS, they have allowed just 14 hits, four runs, nine walks, and struck out 43. Singer posted a CWS championship series record 12 strikeouts in his seven-inning outing last night.

If Florida can manage to win this College World Series, they would join California, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford, and UCLA as the only schools to earn national titles in football, baseball, and men’s basketball.

The Gators already notched one first last night by winning their first CWS finals game. Can they get another, larger accomplishment under their belt and win their first national championship? We have two nights left to find out.

Full College World Series bracket information and times can be found here.