Trey Teakell helps TCU eliminate LSU at College World Series

Trey Teakell pitched 4 1/3 innings of no-hit relief, Dane Steinhagen drove in three runs and Texas Christian defeated Louisiana State, 8-4, in a College World Series elimination game Thursday night.

The Horned Frogs (51-14), who beat the No. 2 national seed for the second time in five days, will play Vanderbilt on Friday night. TCU would have to beat the defending national champion Commodores twice to advance to next week’s best-of-three finals.

Teakell (3-1) took over for starter Mitchell Traver with one out in the fourth and the game tied at 3. The fifth-year senior retired all 13 batters he faced. Preston Guillory worked the final 1 1/3 innings.

TCU broke a 3-all tie in the fifth. Evan Skoug doubled in the go-ahead run and Steinhagen singled in two more. The Frogs added a couple of insurance runs in the seventh on a groundout and Steinhagen’s RBI single.

The Tigers (54-12) were coming off a 5-3 win over Cal State Fullerton in which Alex Lange pitched a complete game. With no true No. 3 starter for LSU’s third game in Omaha, Coach Paul Mainieri decided to pitch by committee and used a CWS record-tying eight. Austin Bain (2-3), the third pitcher for the Tigers, took the loss.

Zac Person, a reliever who had worked only 29 2/3 innings in 30 appearances, drew the start for LSU and lasted 1 1/3 innings. He walked in a run in the second, and Hunter Newman came on and gave up Garrett Crain’s two-run double on his first pitch.

The Tigers tied it in the third when Jake Fraley tripled into the right-center gap and scored standing up on a wild pitch by Traver that went through Skoug’s legs.

LSU shortstop Alex Bregman, the No. 2 overall draft pick by the Houston Astros, was one for four in his final college game and made the defensive play of the CWS in the fourth. Derek Odell bounced a ball up the middle and Bregman went into the hole to glove it, and his momentum carried him three steps before he spun and threw off his right foot to easily get the runner at first.

Teakell, a ninth-round draft pick by the Detroit Tigers, has given up no hits in 5 2/3 innings over two appearances in Omaha. Things got a little interesting in the ninth after LSU got back-to-back doubles from Chris Sciambra and Andrew Stevenson to make it 8-4. LSU had runners at second and third when Guillory struck out Jared Foster to end the game.

TCU will be playing its second game against Vanderbilt in four days. The Commodores won the first meeting, 1-0, as Phil Pfeifer and Kyle Wright combined on a five-hitter and Zander Wiel broke up Alex Young’s no-hit bid with a home run in the seventh.