Pitcher No. 6 was done. One inning pitched, one hit, two earned runs, one strikeout, and five batters faced.
After Beck, Austin Bain entered and immediately gave up two runs, which owed to Beck, of course. Bain in fact had probably the best outing of the night for LSU since he forced only a single and recorded a strikeout. Never mind, though, since by the time he was sat down, the score was 13-1 Beavers, and there’s no coming back from that.
Pitcher No. 7 was done. 1/3 innings pitched, one hit, no earned runs, one strikeout, and two batters faced.
Finally, mercifully, Russell Reynolds came in to throw the ninth, and he quickly gave up a single to the shortstop, then that runner advanced to second on a throwing error. The next batter walked, then Nick Madrigal advanced to third on a pop fly. It seemed that Oregon State was building yet another threat, but Jack Anderson grounded into a double play and that was it for the top of the frame.
Worse still, Sherrod just couldn’t find his targets, and after walking another batsman to cross the Cardinals’ second runner of the frame, he got the ax, having thrown just 15 pitches. Just a miserable offering in a park that requires sound defense. Kaylor Chafin came in to mop up the final two outs, but A&M was by then very much on the ropes.
From there, the Cards crossed another run in the bottom of the eighth, but really the damage had been done. Louisville took it to advance to the winners bracket, 8-4.
In the evening session, Florida big whip Alex Faedo who was drafted by the Tigers in the first round of the MLB Draft on Monday needed just 10 pitches (seven strikes) to get himself out of the top of the first totally clean. The Gators backed that up with a sac-grounder to score one in the bottom of the frame and off to the second they went, 1-0 Florida.