Associated Press
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.
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Virginia 7, Cal State Fullerton 5: OMAHA, Neb. -- Virginia eliminated second-seeded Cal State Fullerton from the College World Series, beating another ace by chasing Daniel Renken.
Renken (11-3) gave up a season-high six runs and left in the sixth inning. The Cavaliers tagged another one of college baseball's top pitchers, having defeated San Diego State ace and No. 1 overall draft pick Stephen Strasburg in the regionals.
Virginia, in the CWS for the first time, took the lead for good in the second inning by scoring four times. Keith Werman, the Cavaliers' ninth-place hitter, singled home the tying run and Danny Hultzen hit a two-run single past diving right fielder Gary Brown.
Werman continued his key hitting in the College World Series, going 2 for 4 and driving in two runs. The 140-pound freshman is 6 for 9 with two doubles and three RBIs in two CWS games.
Fullerton, 21-9 in NCAA tournament elimination games since 1999, tried to come back against closer Kevin Arico in the ninth.
Joey Siddons had an infield single and Christian Colon reached on an error before Brown's RBI single.
Arico struck out Josh Fellhauer, but then Virginia shortstop Tyler Cannon's backhand flip to Werman pulled the 5-foot-7 second baseman off the bag as he tried to get the forceout, allowing another run to score.
Cannon redeemed himself moments later when Khris Davis grounded to him. This time Cannon made a perfect flip to Werman for the final out.
Dustin Garneau's two-run homer off Virginia starter Robert Morey put Fullerton up 2-0 in the second. But the Cavaliers came back with four runs in the bottom half.
Colon homered to make it a one-run game in the third. The Cavs were able to stretch their lead with Phil Gosselin's RBI double in the fifth and run-scoring singles by Werman and Cannon in the sixth.
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