OMAHA, Neb.—The Florida Gators are national champions for the first time in program history.
 
The Gators' recipe for success all season paid off once again as UF relied on strong pitching and defense to beat LSU, 6-1, in Game 2 of the 2017 College World Series Finals.
 
Florida (52-19) went 2-0 in the CWS Finals to defeat LSU (52-20) for the first national title in UF baseball history.
 
With the title, Florida is one of six schools to win a national championship in baseball, basketball and football, joining Cal, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford and UCLA. The Gators are the only program to win a title in each sport in the last 50 years. UF won football titles in 1996, 2006 and 2008 and back-to-back basketball titles in 2006 and 2007.
 
Freshman Tyler Dyson, making just his second career start, pitched a career-high six innings and limited LSU to one run on three hits.
 
Dyson finished the NCAA Tournament with one run allowed in 14.1 innings (0.63 ERA) with 14 strikeouts. He posted a 4.74 ERA in 24.2 innings before the NCAA Tournament.
 
Deacon Liput went 2-for-5 with three RBIs on the night, giving him a team-high seven RBIs in the CWS.
 
Michael Byrne and Jackson Kowar worked the final three innings without allowing a run to close out the victory.

The Gators posted a 2.33 ERA in six CWS games and did not make an error over their final five games of the season.

Florida opened with three straight baserunners off LSU starter Jared Poche. JJ Schwarz's RBI single scored Deacon Liput from third to give the Gators an early 1-0 lead.
 
A two-out single from Liput in the second inning scored Nick Horvath from second to make it 2-0.
 
Florida threatened again in the third inning, loading the bases with one out. Poche got out of the jam with a strikeout and pop up to end the threat.
 
The game turned into a pitching duel through the middle innings.
 
Poche retired eight in a row before a leadoff single from Mike Rivera in the sixth inning. After a sacrifice bunt moved Rivera to second, Poche struck out Horvath for the second out.
 
LSU head coach Paul Mainieri went to the bullpen and brought in closer Zack Hess, who struck out Liput to end the inning.
 
Dyson pitched six scoreless innings before giving up an infield single to start the seventh. Kevin O'Sullivan made the move to the bullpen and brought in Michael Byrne with nine outs remaining.
 
Josh Smith greeted Byrne with a double to right field that got LSU on the board and cut the Gators lead to one.
 
A single from Jake Slaughter put runners on the corners for the Tigers with no outs, but a game-changing play kept the Gators lead intact.
 
LSU catcher Michael Papierski grounder a ball to second and Liput flipped to Guthrie for an out at second. As Guthrie was turning the double play, Slaughter was called for runner's interference. The call forced the tying run to remain at third base and the Gators escaped the jam with a flyout from Beau Jordan.
 
Byrne got into trouble again in the eighth inning after LSU led off with back-to-back singles that put runners on the corners.
 
After striking out Antoine Duplantis, O'Sullivan made a move to the bullpen again and brought in Jackson Kowar.
 
Greg Deichmann swung at the first pitch from Kowar and chopped a ball to first that Schwarz fielded and threw home to get the second out of the inning.
 
Zach Watson flew out to center field to end the threat.
 
Florida blew the game open in the bottom of the eighth.
 
Jonathan India doubled into the left field corner to start a Gators' rally that produced four runs and clinched the victory. Liput's two-run single made it 5-1 and Schwarz capped it off with a sac fly to center field.
 
Kowar worked a scoreless ninth inning for his first career save.
 
CWS FINALS (GAME 2) FILES
CWS Finals Game 2 Box – http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/cws/2017/g16/g16.pdf
CWS Finals Game 2 HTML file – http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/cws/2017/g16/g16.htm
CWS Finals Game 2 notes – http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/cws/2017/g16/notes16.pdf
CWS Statistics Summary - http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/cws/2017/g16/summ16.pdf
CWS Finals Game 2 quotes (LSU) – http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/104/480/transcripts/19385.pdf
CWS Finals Game 2 quotes (Florida) – http://asaptext.com/asap_media/media/104/480/transcripts/19386.pdf
2017 CWS All-Tournament Team - http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/cws/2017/g16/ATT.pdf
 
NATIONAL CHAMPION NOTES

• Florida is one of six schools to win a national championship in baseball, basketball and football, joining Cal, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford and UCLA. The Gators are the only program to win a title in each sport in the last 50 years. UF won football titles in 1996, 2006 and 2008 and back-to-back basketball titles in 2006 and 2007.
• Florida is one of four programs to win at least one national team title each of the last nine seasons. This is Florida's 18^th national title in that span.  Baseball is the fifth Gator program to claim its first NCAA team title in the last nine seasons (baseball, gymnastics, softball, men's indoor track & field, men's outdoor track & field)
• This is the 39^th national title for the Gator program.
• Florida has won three NCAA team titles in the last 36 days, as the Gators took the women's tennis title on May 23 and won men's outdoor track & field on June 9. This is the 10^th season Florida has won multiple team titles.
• This is the second time the Florida program has won three national titles in a season. Florida also won the three in 2012 (men's indoor & outdoor track & field, women's tennis).
• Baseball is the 14^th Gator sport to win a national title. That is the nation's fourth highest array of sport titles for a program (and highest east of Mississippi). Florida is the only Southeastern Conference program to win national team titles in 10 or more sports.
• Florida equaled a program high for top-five (10) national team finishes in 2016-17

 
NATIONAL TITLE TEAMS AT FLORIDA (All-Time)

SPORT	YEAR	NATIONAL TITLES
Baseball	2017	NCAA Championships
Men's Outdoor Track & Field	2017	NCAA Championships
Women's Tennis	2017	NCAA Championships
Men's Outdoor Track & Field	2016	NCAA Championships
Softball	2015	NCAA Championships
Women's Gymnastics	2015	NCAA Championships
Softball	2014	NCAA Championships
Women's Gymnastics	2014	NCAA Championships
Men's Outdoor Track & Field	2013	NCAA Championships
Women's Gymnastics	2013	NCAA Championships
Men's Outdoor Track & Field	2012	NCAA Championships
Women's Tennis	2012	NCAA Championships
Men's Indoor Track & Field	2012	NCAA Championships
Women's Tennis	2011	NCAA Championships
Men's Indoor Track & Field	2011	NCAA Championships
Women's Swimming	2010	NCAA Championships
Men's Indoor Track & Field	2010	NCAA Championships
Football	2008	BCS/Associated Press
Men's Basketball	2007	NCAA Championships
Football	2006	BCS/Associated Press
Men's Basketball	2006	NCAA Championships
Women's Tennis	2003	NCAA Championships
Men's Golf	2001	NCAA Championships
Soccer	1998	NCAA Championships
Women's Tennis	1998	NCAA Championships
Football	1996	Associated Press/Coaches'
Women's Tennis	1996	NCAA Championships
Men's Golf	1993	NCAA Championships
Women's Tennis	1992	NCAA Championships
Women's Indoor Track	1992	NCAA Championships
Women's Golf	1986	NCAA Championships
Women's Golf	1985	NCAA Championships
Men's Swimming	1984	NCAA Championships
Men's Swimming	1983	NCAA Championships
Women's Swimming	1982	NCAA Championships
Gymnastics	1982	AIAW Nationals
Women's Swimming	1979	AIAW Nationals
Men's Golf	1973	NCAA Championships
Men's Golf	1968	NCAA Championships

 
SCHOOLS WITH NATIONAL TITLES IN 10+ DIFFERENT SPORTS

School	No. of Sports w/ Title
Stanford	22
UCLA	20
Southern Cal	18
Florida	14
Texas	12
California	11
Michigan	11
Ohio State	11
Arizona State	10