Jacob Morrison turned in a masterclass performance on the mound, tossing 7.2 innings of one-run ball to lead Coastal Carolina past Oregon State 6-2 and pushing the Chants into the driver’s seat of their College World Series bracket.
The 6-foot-8 righty retired 16 straight at one point and improved to 12-0 on the season, striking out seven and walking none in his longest outing in over two months. Coastal jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first without a hit, thanks to a throwing error, balk, and a clutch bases-clearing double from Colby Thorndyke, and never looked back.
The Chanticleers capitalized on Oregon State’s mistakes, adding insurance runs on a wild pitch, an error, and Dean Mihos’ RBI double, while Ryan Lynch sealed the win with a five-pitch strikeout for his ninth save. Coastal was now 42-0 when leading after six innings.
Coastal would have to close out their bracket by taking on the Louisville Cardinals. The man in the rotation we don’t talk about enough, Riley Eickhoff, toed the rubber.
Eikhoff set the tone tossing 5.1 innings of one-run ball to lead Coastal Carolina past Louisville 11-3. The junior right-hander held the Cardinals scoreless into the sixth before handing it off to a dominant bullpen that has now allowed just two earned runs in 13 innings in Omaha.
The pitchers were backed by immediate run support. Coastal exploded for six runs in the first inning, five before recording an out, highlighted by Colby Thorndyke’s bases-clearing double.
Thorndyke finished 3-for-4 with five RBI, while Dean Mihos added a two-run triple and Ty Dooley chipped in with an RBI single. Now riding a 26-game win streak, the Chanticleers are headed to the finals for the first time since winning it all in 2016.
LSU’s Journey to the Finals
The Tigers entered Omaha as the betting favorite, alongside SEC counterpart Arkansas, who they matched up with in game one. While the stage was set for a pitchers duel between Kade Anderson and Zach Root, the LSU offense would get into the Razorbacks’ bullpen in the second inning after chasing Root charging him with three earned runs, Gabe Gaeckle took over.
While Gaeckle held the Tigers’ offense at bay punching out 10, Anderson got all the help he needed going seven innings of one-run baseball as they would slam the door with a 4-1 victory.
After some inclement weather, and a postponement, the Tigers would cruise past a pesky UCLA Bruins team on the back of four Jared Jones RBI and a collectively solid bullpen performance from Casan Evans, Cooper Williams, and Chase Shores leading to a 9-5 win.
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