Tigers’ draftee Alex Faedo fabulous as Florida reaches CWS finals

Eric Olson | Associated Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Tigers 1st-round pick Alex Faedo shining at CWS The Tigers drafted Florida pitcher Alex Faedo with the 18th pick in June's draft. We break down the numbers behind his dominating performance in the College World Series. Video by Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press

OMAHA, Neb. – Alex Faedo pitched three-hit ball for 7 1/3 shutout innings in a second straight strong performance against TCU, and Florida moved to the College World Series finals with a 3-0 win Saturday night.

No. 3 national seed Florida (50-19) will play Southeastern Conference rival LSU in the best-of-three finals beginning Monday night. Fourth-seeded LSU (52-18) advanced with a 6-1 win over No. 1 Oregon State on Saturday.

TCU (50-18) had beaten the Gators 9-2 on Friday to force the winner-take-all bracket final and the teams’ third meeting in a week.

Faedo, picked by the Detroit Tigers in the first round of the MLB draft earlier this month, struck out 11, just as he did last Sunday in a 3-0 win over the Horned Frogs. Michael Byrne finished for his 18th save.

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The Gators had struggled on offense since they arrived in Omaha, but with Faedo holding down the Frogs they were able to muster enough against Jared Janczak (9-2).

Austin Langworthy doubled and scored on a groundout in the second inning, Christian Hicks doubled in a run in the fifth, and he scored in the seventh when he tripled and came home on Deacon Liput’s grounder that deflected off first base.

Faedo (9-2) reached for his right calf in apparent pain after delivering a pitch to Josh Watson in the seventh, and he grabbed the calf again when he struck Watson out to end the inning. The Detroit Tigers’ first-round draft pick came out for the eighth and got a groundout, but he left after Austen Wade singled.

Zach Humphreys greeted Byrne with a base hit, but the star closer struck out Evan Skoug and got Cam Warner to fly out to end the threat.

Janczak and Faedo were matched up for the second time. Janczak, who struggled against the Gators last Sunday, struck out seven, walked none and scattered seven hits in seven innings.

Skoug singled off Faedo in the first, and the Florida ace walked three in the first four innings before finding a groove. He picked off Ryan Merrill at first in the fourth inning and retired nine of the next 10 batters.

Florida will be playing for its first national championship in baseball. TCU has made it to Omaha four straight years, and a fifth time overall, and is yet to reach the finals.