After a grueling five-month campaign, the 2017 college baseball season could end tonight. This evening in Omaha, the Florida Gators and the LSU Tigers square off in the second game of the College World Series Finals. After winning game one last night, the Gators can clinch their first College World Series championship tonight.
Nine innings away from a title, the Gators will send future Mallard Tyler Dyson to the mound. Dyson, a freshman righty from Bradenton, FL, has been brilliant during the Gators postseason run. Dyson pitched five scoreless innings and struck out seven against Wake Forest in the super regional.
In the postgame presser last night reported on by the Omaha World Herald, Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan explained, “He threw really good last weekend against Wake Forest, another good-hitting team, and he’s got a really good arm. So we’re going to ride it. He’s been really good for the last three weeks and we’re going to run him out there and see what he can do for us.”
Florida closer Michael Byrne, a 2016 Mallard, has been key to the Gators run as well as he has been phenomenal in the back end of the bullpen. Byrne picked up his 18th save of the season last night in the Gators game one win. Byrne entered in the eighth with a one run lead and slammed the door with two scoreless innings.
“We got on a roll and started to get all kinds of confidence in Michael. We wouldn’t be where we’re at without Michael Byrne,” O’Sullivan told ESPN.
Byrne pitched in eight games in Madison last summer and totaled a 2-1 record. He posted 4.35 ERA and struck out 46 batters while walking just nine.
“He was unbelievable,” Mallards field manager Donnie Scott said. “You could see he had the stuff, he’s a sinker-slider guy. I thought it was a great move that they put him in the bullpen. He keeps the ball down and gets a lot of ground balls and he obviously has the stuff to get strikeouts so it made a lot of sense. I’d like to see them pull that thing off tonight.”
Game two of the 2017 College World Series Final is scheduled for 7:00 PM CT tonight at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. Following the series, Florida pitchers Garrett Milchin, Nate Brown, Andrew Baker, and Dyson will head to Madison to join the Mallards. For more Mallards coverage, visit mallardsbaseball.com.
