OMAHA, Neb. – For six innings, Coastal Carolina’s Cameron Flukey and LSU’s Kade Anderson dueled on college baseball’s biggest stage.
And all the while, the one run LSU scored in the bottom of the first was the only run in the game, with Anderson winning the duel. He allowed just three hits while striking out 11 in a complete game effort to make that one run stand up, as LSU snapped Coastal Carolina’s 26-game winning streak with a 1-0 win and took a one-game-to-none lead in the 2025 Men’s College World Series finals.
Derek Curiel led off the game for LSU with a walk, battling back from an 0-2 count to get a free base on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, and scored from second when Steven Milam singled up the middle on a 1-2 count two batters later, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
“He made a couple mistakes to me in my bats. First at-bat, I got three heaters, and he had to get one down and I put a good swing on it,” Milam said of Coastal Carolina’s starter Cameron Flukey. Milam went 2-for-3 with a walk off Flukey, who allowed one run on four hits over six innings with nine strikeouts.
After a heck of a leadoff AB by Derek Curiel (drew a 7-pitch walk after falling behind 0-2), Steven Milam gets his barrel to this upper-90s FB and laces an RBI single (EV of 102) right back from where it came. Good mid-AB adjustment by Milam. pic.twitter.com/M8E7OxylGx
— Peter Flaherty III (@PeterGFlaherty) June 21, 2025
In the top of the third, Anderson hit Caden Bodine and gave up a single to Sebastian Alexander to give the Chanticleers runners at first and second with no outs. When Blake Barthol laid down a bunt back to the mound, Anderson fielded it cleanly and made a perfect throw to third to get Bodine out.
“I think we’ve practiced over 10,000 [pitcher fielding drills] in our season. We had the plan for what Coastal is all about, and just to go execute and field your position,” said Anderson.
And as good as the defensive play and throw were by Anderson, Michael Braswell III’s coverage at third base was equally noticeable.
“Give Braswell credit. That’s a pressure bunt and [Anderson] throws the ball over the top, basically over our baserunner’s left shoulder to collect an out,” said Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall.
When Alexander tried to steal third with two outs, the throw from Tigers catcher Luis Hernandez arrived a second later, but Alexander slid past the bag and was tagged out to end the inning.
It was as close as Coastal Carolina would get to having a runner on third base all night.
“We were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. We just weren’t able to get that big hit,” said Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall. “We’ve got first and second in the third and I think we put down a solid bunt. He’s calm, cool, collected, makes a play and gets our lead [runner] out.”
With two outs in the bottom of the third, Milam hit a fly ball to right field that hit the top of the wall on the yellow home run line and rebounded back towards the infield and legged out a double, but the next batter, Jake Brown, struck out to end the inning.
In the sixth, Milam drew a walk and advanced two bases on a two-out single by Luis Hernandez, but Flukey then got Chris Stanfield to ground out to short and end the threat.
In all, Flukey threw six innings and allowed one run on four hits, walking two and striking out nine. But Anderson showed why he’s MLB’s No. 3 overall prospect for the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft, using a fastball that touched 98 and a nasty changeup to keep the Chanticleers batters baffled.
“Cam Flukey is as good as any pitcher in the entire country. We were extremely confident walking into this game with him pitching. And he gave us opportunity for us to win,” Schnall said. “And, like I said, unfortunately we weren’t able to score. When you don’t score runs, it’s very difficult to win.”