Dominant starting pitching and just enough offense has been Florida’s recipe for success all season. It remained the case in their first four games in Omaha, and rang true again on Monday night in their 4-3 win over LSU in Game 1 of the 2017 College World Series Finals.
The Gators put up a three-spot in the top of the fourth, added an insurance run in the seventh, and let Brady Singer and Michael Byrne take care of the rest.
Singer, a 6-foot-5 hard-throwing right-hander, struck out a CWS Finals-record 12 batters through seven-plus innings on the mound, and Byrne, a mid-80’s hurling sophomore, closed the show with scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth to move the third-seeded Gators one win away from their first collegiate baseball national title.