LSU did not exactly have the best three hours on the baseball diamond on Sunday.
The Tigers took an early 3-1 lead over Florida, but it was all Gators from there. Florida set College World Series single-game records with 24 runs and six home runs while tying the record with 23 hits.
The blowout didn’t happen right away. Florida took a 7-3 lead in the third inning and made it 8-3 in the fourth. But then the Gators poured it on over the final four innings. They scored five runs in the sixth to take a 10-run lead, two runs in the seventh to push the lead to 12, four runs in the eighth to go up by 16, and then five runs in the ninth to make it a 21-run game. LSU mustered just one run in the bottom of the ninth to at least make it a 20-run game.
Mercy rules are common in baseball and softball, particularly since the sports do not have a clock that can simply be wound down. In the Women’s College World Series, a team leading by eight or more after five or more innings can win by the mercy rule.
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