OMAHA, Neb. — Jared Poche’ returned to LSU for his senior season for moments like this. His freshman teammate, Jake Slaughter, just started making his memories.

Poche’ became LSU’s career wins leader with a splendid performance over eight innings, Slaughter hit his first home run in three months for an early five-run cushion, and the Tigers eliminated Florida State from the College World Series with a 7-4 win Wednesday night.

LSU (50-18) advanced to the Bracket 1 final against No. 1 national seed Oregon State, which beat the Tigers 13-1 on Monday. The Tigers would have to beat the Beavers on Friday and again Saturday to reach the best-of-three finals week.

Rather than think ahead to the daunting task awaiting the Tigers, the moments after the win over the Seminoles were a time to fete their reliable left-hander and the kid who got a start because coach Paul Mainieri had a gut feeling it was the right thing to do.

“Poche’ was just the man tonight,” Mainieri said. “He put the team on his shoulders and carried us to the promised land. We needed that win to keep our season alive to win our 50th game, to make the final four, to have a shot at Oregon State. There was a lot riding on this ballgame tonight, and Poché was a cool customer and just went out there and pitched as well as I’ve ever seen him pitch.”

Florida State (46-23) will go home without a national title for a 22nd time, and 16th under coach Mike Martin, who completed his 38th year as coach. No program has as many CWS appearances without winning the championship.

“It feels like we gave it everything we had, and it wasn’t meant to be,” Martin said. “We gave it our best shot. We never felt sorry for ourselves. We kept battling. There’ll be seven disappointed coaches to leave here. Am I disappointed? Well, if I’m not, I’m not much of a competitor.”

Poche’ (12-3), making his school-record 69th career start, won for the 39th time to break the record Scott Schultz set from 1992-95.