CORVALLIS -- Nick Madrigal looked pitcher Kevin Abel in the eye before Sunday night's game and liked what he saw.

Oregon State coach Pat Casey did the same after the 19-year-old freshman from San Diego walked off the mound and told him, "That's a man's start."

Abel more than answered Oregon State's No. 3 starter concerns by taking a two-hitter into the ninth inning, Steven Kwan and Cadyn Grenier homered, and the Beavers rolled into their seventh super regional with a 12-0 victory over LSU to win the Corvallis Regional at Goss Stadium.

On a weekend when OSU gave up only four runs over three games, Abel's performance topped those by heralded starters Luke Heimlich and Bryce Fehmel. Abel was among nine OSU players named to the 12-member all-tournament team.

"He looked completely calm (before the game)," Madrigal said. "It's something that I haven't seen from him in a while. ... He looked like he was in the moment, like he wanted it.

"That's probably one of the best performances I've ever been behind. It's definitely not easy pitching out there, even if it's your home crowd."

To explain his sudden success, Abel tapped his head.

"It was a lot of fun playing in front of this crowd," he said. "Fixing up the mental game, staying within myself and knowing that I've got the best defense in the country behind me, especially Kwan. He had to run all over the yard."

The Beavers (47-10-1), as the No. 3 national seed, will host No. 14 seed Minnesota in the best-of-three super regional starting Friday or Saturday, with the winner advancing to the College World Series. The Golden Gophers (44-13), winners of the Big Ten regular-season title and the conference tournament, beat UCLA 13-8 on Sunday to advance to their first super regional.

Pitching-depleted LSU (39-27), which burned through three available arms in a 9-5 win over Northwestern State to stay alive, was no match for a second turn against OSU's potent lineup.

Starter Devin Fontenot (3-1) exited in the second inning after 54 pitches -- 46 coming when the Beavers batted around in the first -- and three Tigers relievers fared no better.

The Beavers outscored LSU 26-1 in two regional games and recorded their seventh shutout of the season. The Tigers finished as the national runners-up last year after knocking OSU out of the College World Series with consecutive losses.

"They've got a lot of experience, and they're a very talented team and well-coached," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. "They've got a much better team than we do this year, and they beat us fair and square. I wish we could have been a little more competitive in the game."

Abel (4-1) was brilliant through eight innings, allowing an infield single in the third and a pinch single in the eighth. He exited in the ninth after a leadoff single on his 114th pitch to a standing ovation from the crowd of 3,915. Jake Mulholland closed out the game on a called third strike and a double play.

"He was mixing his pitches really well," LSU's Austin Bain said of Abel. "He had a plus changeup and a plus breaking ball, and he'd throw the fastball away."

Mainieri was asked if his team had faced a No. 3 starter as effective as Abel this season, after watching one of the right-hander's curveballs in the eighth inning buckle a right-handed LSU batter into a defensive crouch as the pitch broke across the plate for a strike.

"Yeah, we've faced a lot of No. 3 starters like him in the Southeastern Conference," the coach said. "He did a good job."

It came in Abel's fifth start among 19 appearances this season. His first four starts had ended in three no-decisions and a loss, and none had lasted more than five innings.

"He's worked hard to believe in himself," Casey said. "The problem with guys that are really good in high school (is) they very seldom have failure. I haven't coached anybody that hasn't had failure, and we all know that to have any really success, you've got to take some risks and get on the edge, and to do that you have failure.

"I think he was a little bit hesitant to maybe not do well and get knocked around. Once he understood that, he basically made some adjustments in how he believed in himself."

Abel struck out eight, walked one and let just one runner reach third base. He also had 12 flyball outs, with the hardest hit ball coming in the fourth on a smash to left-center that Kwan ran down and caught one step before crashing into the fence.

It was a busy night for Kwan, who had five putouts, went 3 for 6 with a home run and scored twice.

Kwan's leadoff homer into the right-field bleachers, his second, sparked a three-run first inning for OSU. Michael Gretler added an RBI single and Jack Anderson was hit by a pitch to drive in a run.

The Beavers went up 5-0 in the second on Trevor Larnach's bases-loaded walk and Kyle Nobach's fielder's choice. It could have been worse, as OSU left the bases full for the second inning in a row.

Grenier hit his fifth homer, and OSU's 57th of the season, for a 6-0 lead in the third. Nobach drove in two runs during a four-run sixth inning and added an RBI double in the eighth to make it 11-0. Kwan then drove in Nobach, who had four RBIs, with a single for the final run.

-- Ron Richmond for The Oregonian/OregonLive