2017 College World Series, LSU vs. FSU: Tigers defeat Seminoles, 7-4

The LSU Tigers’ stint in Omaha lives to see another day, as they defeated the Florida State Seminoles 7-4 on Wednesday night.

LSU’s win over FSU sends the ‘Noles packing to Tallahassee and simultaneously pits the Fighting Tigers against the vaunted Oregon State Beavers on Friday afternoon. It’s still win-or-go-home for the Tigers after their 13-1 loss to the Beavers on Monday, so the Tigers will have to beat OSU twice in order to get to the championship round.

The Tigers jumped all over FSU in the second inning, scoring a whopping five runs in the stanza. The big blow came off the bat of Jake Slaughter, whose three-run homer broke the game open following two runs scored by Greg Deichmann and Zach Watson. Slaughter’s three-run dinger brought Michael Papierski and Josh Smith around to score and effectively put FSU behind the 8-ball.

Although FSU would score a run in the ensuing stanza, they wouldn’t plate home a run for four more innings. Jared Poché held down the fort for a majority of his outing, as LSU’s star hurler showed exactly why he has so much hype around him. Poché went eight innings, allowed seven hits and three earned runs (four in total were given up, but thanks to an error one was docked off) while striking out four and issuing two walks. Two home runs were socked in the ninth off Poché, who was able to see the final frame but could not get through. Zack Hess picked up from where he left off and cruised, racking up three strikeouts and a walk with no hits after Poché’s departure.

LSU’s matchup with OSU will take place at 3 p.m. ET on Friday on ESPN.