No. 3 national seed Florida maximized its offensive chances earning a 5-1 victory against the No. 7 Louisville baseball team in Tuesday night’s College World Series winners bracket contest at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
The Gators (49-18) needed just five hits to score their five runs as both Austin Langworthy and Deacon Liput homered to lead the offense. On the mound, sophomore righthander Brady Singer surrendered just one run on seven hits with nine strikeouts and one walk in seven innings to register the win and move to 8-5 on the season for Florida, which moved to 2-0 in the CWS.
With the loss, Louisville (53-11) drops to 1-1 in Omaha and will face No. 6 TCU in an elimination game on Thursday at 7 p.m., CT on ESPN2. The winner between the Cardinals and Horned Frogs will advance to face Florida on Friday at 7 p.m., CT on ESPN.
Junior Brendan McKay paced the Cardinals connecting for a pair of doubles and scoring their only run of the night. Senior Colin Lyman added a RBI single for Louisville, which lost despite finishing with a 7-5 edge in hits against Florida. Junior Kade McClure suffered the loss on the mound and dropped to 8-4 on the season as the righthander allowed four runs on just three hits with nine strikeouts and only one walk in six innings.
The Gators struck first Tuesday plating a run in the third inning on a solo home run by Langworthy. After McClure had retired the first seven Gators of the game, including three by strikeout, Langworthy went the other way sending a 0-1 pitch down the left field line and off the foul pole for his fourth home run of the season.
Florida extended the advantage to 4-0 in the fourth inning on a two-out, three-run homer from Liput. The big inning for the Gators started with a two-out walk to Nelson Maldonado, who moved to third moments later on a single down the right field line by Jonathan India. Liput followed by pulling a 1-2 pitch over the right field wall for just his third homer of the season.
The lead for the Gators increased to 5-0 in the top of the seventh inning on a RBI double by Mike Rivera to score Liput. The inning started with a single through the right side by Liput off Louisville freshman lefthander Adam Elliott before Rivera doubled to right center on a 3-2 pitch.
Louisville broke through for its only run of the game in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Lyman. McKay led off the inning with a double to right center before Lyman drove him in with a single through the right side. The Cardinals went on to load the bases with two outs in the seventh but a groundout from Taylor ended the chance to draw closer.
The Cardinals stranded seven baserunners in the game, including two in the sixth inning and three in the seventh inning, while the Gators stranded just two. Each of the first five Florida players to reach base on Tuesday scored.
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Garett Wall
Assistant Sports Information Director
