Florida, Louisville open with wins

Omaha, Neb. >> Alex Faedo limited TCU to two singles and struck out 11 in seven iings, and Florida posted its first College World Series shutout since 1991 with a 3-0 win Sunday night. Faedo, the Detroit Tigers’ first-round draft pick this month, had at least one strikeout each iing and retired 10 in a row before tuing the game over to closer Michael Bye to start the eighth.

Faedo, who mixed his slider with a mid-90s fastball during a dominant 106-pitch performance, has been part of seven of the Gators’ nine shutouts this season. This shutout was Florida’s second in its 36 all-time CWS games and first in Omaha since a 5-0 win over Florida State 26 years ago.

Jared Janczak (9-1) struggled in his four iings and lost for the first time this season. Bye worked out of two mini jams and eaed his 17th save.

JJ Schwarz, Christian Hicks and Nelson Maldonado each drove in runs for the Gators (48-18).

Florida is in the CWS for the sixth time in eight years and TCU for the fourth year in a row. This was the first time they’ve met.

The Gators came in having lost three straight one-run CWS games, and six of their eight losses in Omaha since 2011 have been by one run.

Louisville 8, Texas A&M 4 >> Colby Fitch drove in four runs, Sam Bordner shut down Texas A&M after it cut Louisville’s five-run lead to one, and the Cardinals beat the Aggies for their first win in six College World Series games. The Cardinals (53-10) used six singles and a walk to build a 5-0 lead in the second iing against Corbin Martin (7-4). Texas A&M chipped away against national player of the year Brendan McKay (11-3) to make it 5-4 before Bordner entered.

Bordner pitched three iings of no-hit relief, and the Cardinals added two runs in the bottom of the sixth and another on Fitch’s RBI double in the eighth.

Louisville had gone 0-5 over its last three appearances in Omaha. The Aggies (41-22) have lost seven straight CWS games.

The Cardinals knocked Martin out of the game in the second, and the Aggies called on season-long ace Brigham Hill to settle things down.

It was a bit of a surprise when Aggies coach Rob Childress aounced Friday that Martin would get the start. Hill, the Washington Nationals’ fifth-round draft pick, has been A&M’s top starter since April 2016, but Childress indicated Martin had been the team’s best pitcher the last three weeks.

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Hill gave up no runs until the sixth, but the Aggies’ offense couldn’t overcome the big lead Louisville built. No team has overcome a five-run deficit to win at the CWS since the event moved to TD Ameritrade Park in 2011.

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