College World Series 2017: Latest Results and Updated Picks for Thursday

Louisiana State still has a most difficult march to get to the championship round of the College World Series, but the Tigers took the first step when they earned a 7-4 victory over Florida State Wednesday night.

Louisiana State will face Oregon State Friday night, and if they are going to advance to the title round, they will have to beat the Beavers in two consecutive games.

The Seminoles were eliminated from the College World Series with the loss. 

The Tigers took charge in the game when they jumped on Florida State with a five-run second inning. Jake Slaughter delivered a three-run homer in that inning while pitcher Jared Poche was on his game and did an excellent job of keeping the Seminoles from mounting a rally. 

Poche pitched into the ninth inning after keeping Florida State off balance through the first eight innings. While he gave up back-to-back home runs to Quincy Nieporte and Cal Raleigh to start that inning, he earned the 39th win of his career with his effort. That gave him the record for most pitching victories in team history.

Poche was ecstatic after the game. "If you would've told me four years ago before I started my career at LSU that in four short years [I'm] going to be in Omaha and break the all-time wins record, there's no way I would've believed that," Poche said, per Nick Suss of SECCountry.com. "This record is definitely not an individual award."

The Tigers move ahead in the series and must rematch with Oregon State after losing to the Beavers 13-1 in their previous game. Finding a way to beat Oregon State twice seems a bit much to ask of LSU at this point, but that's what it will take.

Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press

TCU vs. Louisville

TCU and Louisville will meet Thursday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska, for the right to play Florida Friday night.

The winner of the matchup between the Horned Frogs and the Cardinals will need to defeat the Gators twice to advance to the championship round of the CWS.

College World Series 2017: Thursday Schedule

Matchup: Louisville vs. TCU

Time: 8 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN

Live Stream: WatchESPN

The Horned Frogs defeated Texas A&M 4-1 Tuesday, while the Cardinals were stifled 5-1 by the Gators Tuesday night.

TCU will have to shut down the powerful Cardinals offense that features sluggers Drew Ellis and Brendan McKay. Ellis has belted 20 home runs while driving in 61 and delivering a robust slugging percentage of .711.

McKay has hit 17 home runs, while driving in 56 runs and slugging .653. The two-way player was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays with the fourth pick in the first round last week.

Nati Harnik/Associated Press

TCU will need an excellent pitching effort to slow down the Louisville offense. Head coach Jim Schlossnagle will send senior right-hander Mitchell Traver or freshman left-hander Nick Lodolo to the mound.

"Mitchell's pitched great, he's started games here before, he's certainly not going to be wowed by the atmosphere," Schlossnagle said, per Carlos Mendez of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "For the future of the program, you want Nick to have a chance to start a game. The easiest way to do that is to win one more, and they'll both get one more start."

Prediction

The Horned Frogs have a solid team, and they came up with a strong effort in beating Texas A&M earlier this week.

Stopping Louisville is a much tougher assignment. The Cardinals have a fearsome combination of sluggers in Ellis and McKay, and it doesn't seem likely that Traver or Lodolo will stop them.

Louisville wins this matchup and will get an opportunity to rematch with Florida.