OMAHA — Mikie Mahtook, Austin Nola and Blake Dean hit home runs Monday night to keep LSU unbeaten in the College World Series with a 9-1 victory over Arkansas.
“You saw what we’re capable of doing,” Tigers coach Paul Mainieri said. “When we’re clicking, it can be a pretty good offense 1 through 9.”
The No. 3-seeded Tigers (53-16) were clicking against their Southeastern Conference rivals, winning their 12th straight game to take control of Bracket 2. They get three days off before playing the Razorbacks or Virginia on Friday. Another win sends LSU into next week’s best-of-three finals.
Arkansas (40-23) and Virginia meet Wednesday in an elimination game.
LSU has hit five home runs in two CWS games and has 99 for the season, one short of last year’s total but far behind the NCAA-record 188 by the “Gorilla Ball” team of 1997.
The Tigers turned on the power early against Arkansas starter Brett Eibner. Mahtook hit a three-run homer in the first, and Eibner (5-5) got pulled after Ryan Schimpf’s double put LSU up 4-1 with two outs in the second.
TJ Forrest kept the Tigers quiet until the sixth, when they erupted for five more runs, with four of them coming with two out.
“It happened real quick,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We had a chance to get out of it, and then bang. They’ve got some pop.”
Virginia 7, Cal State Fullerton 5.
The Cavaliers beat All-American Daniel Renken (11-3) and eliminated the Titans (47-16).
Virginia (49-14-1) scored four times against Renken in the second inning, and he was finished in the sixth after allowing a season-high six runs.
“To put up four runs on an All-America pitcher like Renken is a great inning for us and, believe me, I wanted more,” Cavaliers coach Brian O’Connor said.
The Cavs did get more, which was a good thing for them because Fullerton had the winning run at the plate in the ninth before Virginia secured its first CWS victory.
Keith Werman, the Cavaliers’ ninth-place hitter, singled home the tying run and Danny Hultzen hit a two-run single past diving right fielder Gary Brown. Werman, a 140-pound freshman, is 6-for-9 in two CWS games.
