Vanderbilt 1, TCU 0

Any other time, Zander Wiel’s home run to break up a no-hitter and produce the only run in a College World Series victory would have been all the talk after the game.

This night, circumstances dictated that Philip Pfeifer take the spotlight.

One year ago, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin kicked Pfeifer off the team that would win the national championship because of a failed drug test. Corbin ordered him to get treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.

Tuesday night, Pfeifer was on the mound at TD Ameritrade Park pitching seven shutout innings in the Commodores’ victory over TCU.

“I have a lot of feelings about what Philip did,” Corbin said. “This kid drove to Omaha last year by himself just to watch this thing because he wasn’t a part of it. All I remember tonight was him walking back and forth in the dugout with a smile on his face saying, ‘Hey, guys, we’re in Omaha.’

“He was very tranquil on the mound, at peace with himself, executing his pitches. There isn’t anyone here who enjoys being in Omaha, being in this moment, more than him.”

Pfeifer’s job was to match the effort of TCU starter Alex Young (9-3), who had a no-hitter going until Wiel drove the left-hander’s 2-1 changeup just inside the left-field foul pole for his 15th homer of the season. Young left after Rhett Wiseman doubled with two outs in the eighth.

Pfeifer (5-5), a third-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Kyle Wright allowed five singles and walked four, but the Horned Frogs went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Wright earned his fourth save.

Pfeifer stayed close to the team during his suspension and was reinstated last fall and became the Commodores’ No. 3 starter. What was the hardest part of the ordeal for the junior lefty?

“Coming to terms with the fact they didn’t need me to win last year,” he said. “Once I swallowed that, my ego deflated and I had a realistic appreciation for myself and my skills.”

Given his opportunity at the CWS, he relished it.

“Just visualizing being in this scenario in this situation tonight,” he said. “From one side, you would love to have 20 runs score. From the competitive side, you want that 1-0 ballgame, and they gave it to us.”

The Commodores (49-19) earned two days off and would have to be beaten twice by either TCU (50-14) or LSU to be denied a second straight trip to the best-of-three finals. Those teams will play an elimination game Thursday.

Young (9-3) flummoxed Vanderbilt for six innings, striking out a career-high 12 batters. Wiel drove out the junior left-hander’s 2-1 changeup just inside the left-field foul pole for his 15th homer of the season.

“It was one mistake, and his bat ran into the ball,” Young said. “Every other pitch I was throwing for a strike. Just bad luck.”

It was the second straight narrow win for the Commodores. They came back from a 3-0 deficit on Monday to defeat Cal State Fullerton 4-3 on Jeren Kendall’s walk-off home run, and they made the most of their three hits against Young, a second-round draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Trey Teakell.

With Virginia’s 1-0 win over Florida on Monday, this marks the first year since 1972 that there have been two 1-0 games in the CWS.

TCU threatened in the seventh when Keaton Jones singled and took second on a throwing error. But Pfeifer got out of it, getting a flyout and strikeout before second baseman Tyler Campbell went into the outfield grass to pick up a grounder and throw out Cody Jones.

“Personally, I’m so overwhelmed by it because he’s here and playing for us,” Corbin said. “It’s such a good story of a human comeback, from a personal standpoint, that he can be wearing a uniform, going to school, living a normal life. That supersedes everything. Everyone is tremendously happy for him.”

LSU 5, Cal State Fullerton 3

LSU coach Paul Mainieri was beginning to think his team was jinxed at TD Ameritrade Park after watching Cal State Fullerton score three times in the first inning.

It turned out Mainieri had nothing to worry about with freshman sensation Alex Lange on the mound Tuesday.

Lange pitched his second complete game in three starts, allowing only three base runners after that rocky first inning, and the Tigers knocked the Titans out of the College World Series with a victory.

“Obviously, the understatement of the day is we’re so happy to get a win finally at TD Ameritrade Park,” Mainieri said. “It’s a wonderful ballpark and a wonderful city, but it was like a curse on the LSU Tigers to get a victory. It’s very relieving.”

The Tigers (54-11), the No. 2 national seed and the No. 1 team in the major polls, scored four times in the third inning to wipe out an early deficit. They’ll play Thursday against the loser of the Tuesday night game between Vanderbilt and TCU.

LSU won six national championships at the old Rosenblatt Stadium but went into Tuesday 0-3 at the 5-year-old TD Ameritrade. The Tigers were in danger of going two-and-out, as they did in 2013, after losing 10-3 to TCU on Sunday. Instead, the Tigers maintained their streak of not losing back-to-back games this season.

Alex Bregman, the No. 2 overall draft pick by the Houston Astros, matched his career high with four hits while batting leadoff for the first time this season.

“Whether I’m hitting first or ninth, as long as we win I’m happy,” Bregman said. “I felt comfortable up there. I was trying to square the ball up, get quality at-bats. We wanted to get our swagger back offensively. We’ve had a good offense all year long, and it’s coming.”

The Titans (39-25) used four straight hits and a squeeze bunt to jump out to a 3-0 lead against Lange (12-0). He allowed only two singles and a walk the rest of the way.

His 10 strikeouts gives him 33 over his last three starts.

Once he found his groove against Fullerton, Lange was determined to go the distance.

“These guys picked me up big-time, giving me four runs in the third, and that settled me down,” Lange said. “I know we have two of the best relievers in the country in (Zac) Person and (Parker) Bugg, and they have my back if I run into trouble. But when you’re out there, you want to finish it.”

It was the continuation of a fabulous season for the Southeastern Conference’s freshman of the year. The 6-foot-3, 198-pound Lange allowed three runs in 17 innings over his two previous NCAA Tournament starts. On Tuesday he had given up that many runs after facing just six batters.

“He has shown us all year that he’s not ever going to throw in the towel,” Mainieri said. “He’s going to fight right to the end. I wasn’t worried about him.”

Bregman, who was 2 for 4 against TCU on Sunday after going 1 for 16 in his first five NCAA Tournament games, led off the inning the first three times he came to bat and singled four straight times before dribbling out to the pitcher in the eighth.

Bregman’s base hit to left started LSU’s four-run third inning against freshman Connor Seabold (5-4) and Miles Chambers. Kade Scivicque and Chris Sciambra and Chris Chinea followed with RBI singles and Andrew Stevenson’s sacrifice fly brought in another run. Pinch hitter Danny Zardon’s sacrifice fly in the seventh gave the Tigers a two-run cushion.

Fullerton jumped on Lange in the first. The Titans strung together four straight hits, including David Olmedo-Barrera’s RBI triple, and Dalton Blaser brought in Jerrod Bravo from third with safety squeeze bunt that made it 3-0.

Fullerton has lost seven straight CWS games and is 2-8 in Omaha since winning the national title in 2004. The Titans twice blew 3-0 leads this week. They lost 4-3 to Vanderbilt on Monday on a walk-off home run.

“We played two games here and didn’t lose one. We got beat twice. I can live with that,” Titans coach Rick Vanderhook said. “We didn’t beat ourselves at all.”