LSU hits 3 homers in 9-1 win over Arkansas, takes control of College World Series bracket

LSU hits 3 homers in 9-1 CWS win over Arkansas

OMAHA , Neb. — Mikie Mahtook, Austin Nola and Blake Dean homered and LSU stayed unbeaten at the College World Series with a 9-1 victory over Arkansas on Monday night.

The No. 3-seeded Tigers (53-16), who have won 12 straight, are off until they play the Razorbacks or Virginia on Friday. A win in that game would send LSU to next week’s best-of-three finals.

Arkansas (40-23) and Virginia meet Wednesday in an elimination game.

Razorbacks starter Brett Eibner (5-5) was knocked out in the second inning after allowing four runs. TJ Forrest held LSU scoreless until the sixth, when the Tigers added five more.

LSU’s Louis Coleman (14-2) gave up six hits over his six innings, allowing the Hogs’ only run in the first. He struck out seven. Daniel Bradshaw and Nolan Cain finished LSU’s third win in four meetings against its Southeastern Conference rival.

The Tigers ran their season home run total to 99, including five in their two CWS games. It was the 14th time this season the Tigers have hit three homers in a game.

Mahtook hit a three-run homer in the first for his seventh of the year. The Tigers jacked two more in the five-run sixth, with light-hitting shortstop Nola turning on a fastball for his third of the season and Dean hammering his 16th deep into the right-field seats for a 7-1 lead.

Coleman pitched a two-hit shutout against Arkansas on May 2, and he was pretty good again Monday.

He came up big in the third after Arkansas loaded the bases, and his defense helped him out in the fourth and fifth.

Coleman went right after left-handed pinch hitter Jacob House after walking the bases full. When House swung and missed on an 0-2 pitch, Coleman glided off the mound toward his dugout pumping his right fist.

The next inning, second baseman DJ LeMahieu dived to his right to stop Chase Leavitt’s hard grounder up the middle, got up and threw to first just in time.

In the fifth, Zack Cox sent a shot that bounced off first baseman Sean Ochinko’s chest. Ochinko picked up the ball, sprawled out and touched the bag with his glove just before Cox arrived.

After the fifth, the Hogs couldn’t get a runner past first base until the ninth.