 Photo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 6/19/2023 By: Jason Watson Jr. OMAHA, NE- A pivotal matchup between the team with the lowest earned run average and the team with the most total earned runs in Division I baseball was on display at the Charles Schwab diamond Monday night. #1 Wake Forest and #5 LSU duked it out in the winners’ bracket game with the Tigers being handed the loss by a score of 3-2. After a slow start from both teams, LSU broke the ice in the top of the 3rd inning. With one out and Josh Pearson standing on second base, Tommy White singled up the middle to bring home the runner. Tre’ Morgan then delivered a huge RBI triple that went over the left fielder’s head as he lost the ball in the sun. That proved to be all for the Tigers, but not before making the score 2-0. Wake Forest tried to get something going with a lead off single in the 4th inning, the Deacons’ first hit of the game. An errant pitch that got away from Travinski allowed the runner to advance to 2nd and was in scoring position. Ty Floyd had other plans. The right-handed junior then struck out the next three batters in order which brought his total to 8 K’s on the night. Things were quiet through the 5th inning, but the Demon Deacons were given a golden opportunity in the bottom half of the 6th. Ty Floyd walked three straight batters to load the bases for Wake Forest with no outs. Jay Johnson had seen enough and brought in Thatcher Hurd in relief. Floyd finished with four walks and 10 strikeouts on the night. A strongly hit ball up the middle allowed one run to come across making the score 2-1 Tigers, but kept the bases loaded. Shortstop, Justin Johnson, grounded into an important double play, but was enough for another run to score, tying things up. After a HBP and a walk from Hurd, the bases were once again loaded. A huge swinging strikeout ended the inning and got LSU out of a jam with a whole new ballgame on the horizon. Cole Roland came in to replace Wake Forest’s Josh Hartle to begin the 7th inning. After delivering 2 strikeouts, he was pulled for redshirt junior righty Reed Mascolo, who was able to retire the side. LSU’s pitching walked the lead off man of the home side and got two quick pop outs before walking yet another Deacon. Runners stood on first and second, a base hit away from taking the lead, but Hurd delivered the punch out, keeping the score tied at 2 heading to the 8th. Both teams were in search of a momentum shift, and Tre’ Morgan produced just that. One pitch and one swing gave the Tigers a lead off runner of their own, this by way of a double out right. Morgan then made it to third base and Travinski to first off of an infield error from the second baseman. Cade Beloso then grounded into a fielder’s choice at 3rd base, with Morgan getting called out at home on a bang-bang play. Camden Minacci came in to pitch for Wake Forest, and forced Gavin Dugas to chop one into a double play leaving two LSU runners stranded; A real missed opportunity for Jay Johnson’s group. Wake Forest turned the tides with a one out double putting a runner in scoring position. Catcher Bennett Lee came up big for the Demon Deacons with an RBI single out to left field, making the score 3-2 and giving the 2nd lead change of the night. Two strikeouts would go on to end the inning. Down to their final three outs, LSU’s Brayden Jobert was due up, leading off the 9th. Minacci caught him looking for the first out of the inning. Jordan Thompson then went down swinging. Josh Pearson looked to give the Tigers a last gasp hope, but a chopper right back to the pitcher was easily delivered to 1st base and recorded the final out of the game. A total of 13 batters were struck out by Wake Forest for the game, and most notably Dylan Crews, finished 0-3 on the night with 2 strikeouts and a walk. LSU will fall to 1-1, suffering their first loss of the NCAA tournament. They will play against Tennessee Tuesday night at 6:00pm CST in an elimination game. Wake Forest rises to 2-0 and will await the winner of LSU-Tenn. Tough loss and a tall mountain to climb, but as always… Geaux Tigers! *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication!
0 Comments
 Photo By: San Diego Union-Tribune Da Boot Sports 6/17/2023 By: Jason Watson Jr. OMAHA, NE- LSU baseball made its return to the College World Series with a 6-3 victory versus conference foe, Tennessee, Saturday night. This marks the first time the Tigers have made it to Charles Schwab field since 2017, a year in which they finished as runners-up to Florida in the championship series. Pitcher and 2023 Dick Howser trophy recipient, Paul Skenes, was dominant against the Vols’ lineup, notching 12 strikeouts through 7.2 innings pitched. He demonstrated excellent command and showed off the velocity, allowing just five hits and one earned run with one walk. Over the course of 123 pitches, Skenes reached over 100mph with his fastball more than 40 times. Second baseman, Gavin Dugas, helped the Tigers strike first in the bottom of the 2nd inning with a one out, solo home run (412 ft.) The Tigers threatened in the bottom of the 3rd, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd base with just one out. Tre’ Morgan aided LSU with a ground out RBI that brought Josh Pearson home, making the score 2-0. Dylan Crews was left stranded on third after a groundout from catcher, Hayden Travinski. The bottom of the 4th began to look very similar after outfielder, Brayden Jobert doubled, sending Dugas to 3rd. Cade Beloso struck out looking, and following an early pitching change from Tennessee, Pearson went down swinging to end the inning, stranding two Tigers in scoring position. After an uneventful 5th inning, and a 1-2-3 top of the 6th from the Volunteers, LSU scored again. Travinski led off the bottom of the inning with a walk and advanced to second base on a wild pitch from Halvorsen (Tenn.) before Dugas went down swinging. Jobert responded with a triple off the wall and earned an RBI while rounding the bases. Short Stop, Jordan Thompson, followed that up with a single, sending the runner home as the Tigers took a 4-0 lead. L-S-U chants began raining down in Omaha and Tennessee was forced to switch pitchers once again, leading Pearson to strike out, ending the inning. Skenes struck out two more Vols’ batters in the top of the 7th while giving up his first walk of the evening. Dylan Crews began the bottom side with a double out to right field. Third baseman Tommy White, singled in the lineup before Crews made it home off a SAC fly from Morgan. 5-0 Tigers. Beloso came up to bat with two outs and walked. Dugas, who started the scoring in the game, thought he had another LSU homer, but left the ball just short allowing it to be snagged at the warning track. What seemed like a sure win late, suddenly had become a drama-filled ending. In the top of the 8th inning, Tennessee, with a man on second, got a single through the infield to score their first run of the night. The score stood 5-1, and Jay Johnson had decided Skenes’ evening was through. Johnson went to the pen for Gavin Guidry to close the game… or so he thought. Guidry came in and delivered one pitch to the Vols before being pulled in favor of Riley Cooper. That one pitch was swung on and homered deep to left center by Hunter Ensley (Tenn.), driving across 2 more runs making the score 5-3. The Tennessee dugout and fans had gained life in one swing of the bat, but Brayden Jobert silenced them quickly in the bottom of the inning. Jobert led off with a solo shot to right field giving the Tigers breathing room pushing their lead to three. That would prove to be all for scoring. Jobert would go on to finish just a single shy of hitting for the cycle in the game. Tennessee got all that they could handle and were unable to muster any comeback as Cooper dealt two strikeouts and earned the save having caught the final line out of the game as LSU defeated the Volunteers 6-3. LSU will now face Wake Forest in the 1-0 game Monday at 6:00pm CST. Tennessee will fall to the losers’ bracket and play Stanford in a elimination game. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! GEAUX TIGERS!! *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication!  LOGO By: LSU sports.net Da Boot Sports 6/15/2023 LSU Sports Communications 2023 College World Series Thursday, June 15, 2023 Omaha, Nebraska, USA LSU Tigers Coach Jay Johnson Dylan Crews Thatcher Hurd Press Conference THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the LSU portion of our news conference. We'll start with a comment from Jay and have questions for the players. Jay, congratulations coming back. Give us an overview. JAY JOHNSON: Very proud of our team this year. Obviously a great collection of talent, but they became a team. We were very deliberate in how we did that. We've had great player leadership. To have the expectations on them to be the No. 1 team in the country preseason, hold that for 11 or 12 weeks and not have a losing week the entire season speaks to their consistency and their talent. I believe we're playing the best baseball that we have all year right now, and very proud of being here. With that being said, we're highly motivated to continue our streak of our best baseball right now. Can't wait to get on the field. Very proud and very honored to bring this group of players to Omaha. THE MODERATOR: We're going to start with questions for the student-athletes. Q. For Dylan and for Thatcher. You just heard your coach say it, and we've all seen it. Why do you think you're playing your best baseball right now? DYLAN CREWS: We had a little team meeting right after the SEC tournament and got together and we just said five games. Just give us five games to get here and play your best baseball that you possibly can, forget about all the stuff that happened in the season. Just focus on the present right now. Give us five games to get here, and I think everything will take care of itself as soon as we get here. We have to keep this momentum forward. Like I said, I think it's just going to take care of itself as soon as we start playing. THATCHER HURD: Just what Dylan said. I think that meeting was huge for us. A lot of momentum from that. Just something Coach said all year is just surrendering yourself to the result. It's all about the process and doing whatever we need to do to win. Q. This question is going to be for Thatcher. How does it feel to be with a new program this year and just all the alignments with your mechanics that you adjusted with UCLA last year? THATCHER HURD: I love being an LSU Tiger. I love our coaches. Love the teammates to death. Some of my closest friends. It's been a great season we've had. I've loved it. I feel like I've grown a lot from it. In terms of the adjustments, just sticking to my process every day and staying true to that. Some results following, and then we're in a good spot now. Q. How rewarding has it been for you, Thatcher, to deal with some of the ups and downs you had earlier in the season to fight your way back into having a prominent role again and to be a part of getting this team to this stage? THATCHER HURD: Yeah, I think it's been rewarding. With failure, success, I stayed true to my process every day with my work, and it feels good to contribute to the team. Obviously when you're going out there and you don't feel like you're contributing and letting some of your guys down, it's the worst feeling in the world. So it feels really good to kind of contribute, and I just want to help us win. Q. You guys mentioned that you guys held a team meeting after the SEC tournament, and the result has been a five-game winning streak. However, all of those games were in Baton Rouge. This is obviously not Baton Rouge. How are you guys planning on keeping that alive maybe with a little bit less of the familiarity that you have from playing at home? THE MODERATOR: Dylan, you start. DYLAN CREWS: Just sticking to our game really. I think we're in a very good spot right now. Like I said, the momentum is tremendous in this team right now. I think everything is just kind of clicking for us right now. Bullpen is doing really well. Starting pitching has just been dominant. Our approaches have been great in the batter's box. Really just sticking to our plan, no matter change of the field, change of the atmosphere. Just sticking to our plan, that's it. THATCHER HURD: I think now more than ever it's all about just staying true to ourselves, and what's got us here. I think that Dylan said it perfectly. Q. You're familiar with the team you're playing right off the bat. What is it like to play a team, yet again, that you are very familiar with that also has a really good pitching staff? THE MODERATOR: Thatcher, you start. THATCHER HURD: A lot of the SEC teams, we see them in conference and the SEC tournament, saw them in the postseason. It's just about playing our baseball and staying true to what we know. DYLAN CREWS: A very good team. I have total respect for them. Great program. Definitely know how to win. We have to play our best baseball for this game. Great pitching staff. We saw them early in the year, so kind of have an idea going into this game. But, yeah, like I said, we have to play our best baseball right now. Q. If we can start with Dylan, obviously Skenes won the Dick Howser today. I wonder what do you appreciate most about him? I imagine it's probably different being in different parts in your career? DYLAN CREWS: Yeah. He has had a tremendous impact on my career. Just the way he goes about himself every single day, his preparation. From the first day he walked into the locker room, he has been the same ever since up to this point. That's what I respect about him. He goes about himself like a Big Leaguer does, and if not probably way better. So I have definitely taken notes of that. Just try to almost imitate him in every way possible because he has had a lot of success this year. THATCHER HURD: I think with Paul, he has helped me out I think probably more than he knows. I live with him, and we talk all the time about baseball mindset. I just try to learn from him every day. It's really special to be around him. Same with Dylan. Right next to him in the locker and I live with Paul. I'm just super thankful I've got to share the field with those guys all year, and it's special. Just trying to soak it in, you know. Q. Dylan, how does it feel to just not just be in Omaha, you are one of the three finalists right now for the Golden Spikes Award. Even what lies ahead towards the middle of July, what are you just looking forward to taking the field on Friday night? DYLAN CREWS: Man, it's something that I've wanted since I was a freshman walking into the locker room. It's just something that I have thought about every single day leading up to this point. I want to go here and experience all this, being able to play baseball -- or playoff baseball at the Box was something, but being able to play here is something else. The crowds are going to double, triple. The atmosphere is going to be electric. You know, being able to play here is pretty awesome. The Old Spice thing, it's awesome, but we have a job here to do. And, yeah, that's the only thing on my mind right now. Q. This would be for Coach and for Dylan. THE MODERATOR: We're going with the players first. Q. Dylan, can you talk about, I guess, the -- it seems like a common theme this year has been guys accepting their roles and thriving in those environments. Thatcher is a great example. Josh Pearson. Just can you talk about the willingness of this team and just guys being able to adapt to their roles pretty consistently? DYLAN CREWS: I think it all starts with the older guys really. Some of our older guys didn't start early in the year, so having them being able to come in and produce the way they did really just kind of moved on to the younger guys. They've done a tremendous job. Like Pearson and Paxton sometimes. And then just other guys really at any point. I have faith in all the guys. Everybody else does. It doesn't matter who you are, at any moment, any spot in the lineup, I think they're going to do a good job of staying present, staying locked in, and producing. Q. This one is for both the players. LSU all year has been very good at a whole ton of things. The team is borderline top 10 in walks and hits per inning. They're a fantastic hitting team. I believe you lead the nation in hits. Dylan as a hitter and then Thatcher as a pitcher, what does it mean to you guys that the other side of the ball is always constantly able to produce and give you some support? DYLAN CREWS: Yeah, it's awesome. It's a good feeling when the pitchers are doing their job and getting the lineup over -- or flipping to the other side to have the lineup do what it does best. Just going up there and hitting. We have a great offensive approach each and every day, sticking to our plan. Just commanding the line of scrimmage in baseball is what we call it. I think we do that, good things will happen for both sides of the playing field. THATCHER HURD: I think just like both sides of the ball, picking each other up. I think that's a huge component of our team. I know when I get the ball or anyone else gets the ball that we're going to score. As a staff we're just looking to pick up the offense, maybe to put up a zero that inning. That's a huge component of our team. Q. Dylan, I know that hitting in this ballpark, it's a little different here. The foul territory is bigger. I'm just wondering how that adjusts your game plan as a hitter. A. As a hitter, yeah. Really it stays the same. Sticking to the approach. Foul territory gets a little bigger, but the field stays the same really. So we just stick to our approach really. I think everything will kind of just take care of itself. (Indiscernible) approach, commanding the strike zone. Good things will happen on both sides of the ball. Q. Your answer to my Skenes question triggered something. Did you feel like you had a partner in crime when he showed up on campus, someone else that could shoulder the burden along with you as the face of this program? DYLAN CREWS: Yeah. I mean, didn't really view myself as the face of the program. Just doing my thing every day. But, yeah, just having somebody to kind of just lead the team. Not just on the hitter side, but on the pitching side too. Having somebody. Last year we had older guys being able to kind of be the role model, the leaders of the team. Paul has really stepped up in being able to be the leader for the younger guys. It's been tremendous. Guys have been looking up to him and kind of following him and seeing how the way he goes about himself. So it's been good. Q. Thatcher, I know when you first came here, you wanted the No. 25, and then you saw that Hayden Travinski had it. Can you talk to me, saying how did your relationship with him start, and what is it like now? THATCHER HURD: Yeah, I love Hayden. He was one of the first guys I met. When I came here, I didn't know anyone. He was one of the first guys I met. We would go out and get food together and hang out. It just felt really cool to be welcomed by him. He is such a great clubhouse guy. He is a leader. To see what he does on the field every day, I couldn't be happier for him, and no one deserves it more considering the adversity he has gone through and just persistence and doing what he does. I love that guy. Q. (Indiscernible) Outback, then I saw a bunch of pictures. It's bunch of you guys that go or different groups of guys that go. What does that do as far as team bonding? Are there other places that everybody kind of goes and groups up and kind of shares a meal together? THATCHER HURD: Yeah, for sure. That's one of the most fun parts of college and being on a team I think is going out to eat and hanging out. Yeah, we love each other. We love to hang out. We go out to eat and it's the pitchers, and it's a lot of fun. Q. (Off microphone.) DYLAN CREWS: Not really. We're always around each other every day at the field, so I don't know. We used to do that a lot in the fall really. We used to go out to the nutrition center, all of us, the whole team, and just have team dinners, team lunches, whatever it was. I think that helps a lot. I think that's why we're so close and why we gel so good. It's been great. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. You're excused, and we'll open it up here for questions for the coach. Q. It's been a few years since this program has been back here. How much does it speak to the expectations in Baton Rouge for this program, that though it's been a few years, it's talked about like it's been ages since you have been back here? JAY JOHNSON: I never really thought of it in terms of how long it's been for LSU. This is my favorite place in the world, and this program has had as good a history as any program in college baseball of being here. I think in accepting the job I really wanted this group of players to play here. The guy sitting to my left, he was part of me deciding to come here, to get an opportunity to coach him at LSU for two years. They've done everything that we've asked them to do for 700-plus days. When we took the field last weekend, there was a really solid peace of mind that these guys were going to do it. To see the fans get behind them, they're going to get behind LSU no matter what, but this is a really easy group to get behind, how hard they play, how much they care, how invested they are in the program. That's kind of more where my thoughts were. Q. I think last week you said you can't control your performance unless you control yourself. I wonder how much that applies to you because your players say that you are not a shouter and a screamer when you coach them. You are pretty much level with them. JAY JOHNSON: I think in leadership you can talk about it the way you want them to do it or you can talk about it and try to show them. Certainly not perfect in that regard. Like I'll use Thatcher as an example. His competitiveness is his best quality. A lot of our conversations are never turning your best quality against you. And that's one I can relate to. As a younger coach maybe getting a little more overly intense, for lack of a better word. As I've grown in this role and leadership, I've always believed it's better to show them the way than to tell them the way, and you get more buy-in when you tell them if you show it to them. Q. When you were growing up, when did baseball really hook you, and when did you become just so in love with the sport? And do you have any humorous thoughts, your family, friends: Hey, Jay, let's go do this. Oh, he is watching baseball. JAY JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, relative to Omaha and the College World Series, I grew up in a small town, and playing Major League Baseball might as well have been going to the moon. You know what I mean? When you watch the College World Series, whether it was LSU, Texas, Stanford, that kind of seemed like a realistic goal. And so that was probably the first thought. Football was my first love. No question about that. But I realized really quickly very good high school player; there wasn't many 5'7", 165-pound running backs running around the SEC or the Pac-12 or that sort of thing. This was the way it was going to be. I got to play college baseball. Then becoming a coach was really the only option. I'm addicted to winning. I'm addicted to developing programs and helping players achieve their goals. It was just the route that it was going to be. It's really awesome to be able to do it at LSU. I view our university, our program, as the pinnacle of the sport. Q. When you're recruiting Paul -- or he is in the transfer portal and coming from Air Force, his fastball is 93, 94 miles an hour when he was there against Mountain West competition. How did his fastball jump the way that it did, 5 miles an hour upward, and how has he been able to be even better against better competition this year? JAY JOHNSON: That's a great question. I think there's a lot of value in simplicity, I think, and he's a great two-way player. This dude was launching home runs in fall baseball. I mean, as impressive as it gets. He definitely could make an impact. Had I just made him a position player, he would have 20 home runs right now and potentially be hitting fifth or sixth for our team. Well, we had a really deliberate plan on the pitching side of it. We got him started right when he got to campus with Coach Wes Johnson to develop his slider. There were some things that we needed to do. So we started to do that early. We shut him down earlier in the fall to give him more ramp-up time for the season. Then it wasn't intentional, but I think kind of removing the two-way player thing, I started to see his ability to recover physically better. You're minimizing the rotations because the rotation of a pitching delivery, rotation of a hitting swing, he is right-handed in both, it's very similar. I feel like last year he was catching. He was swinging a bat. He was running the bases. He was potentially playing first base at times. Then, also, you know, going six or seven innings in a league that's not very easy to pitch in. I know that firsthand. I think kind of the simplicity of it, and then you take someone that is so driven, that says so disciplined, and get them on track with one thing. What does Friday to Friday look like? Then he has absolutely mastered that. When you are talking about recovery, when you are talking about development, velocity improvement, improving his secondary pitches, he has been able to go all-in on those things. I think that's probably the reasoning. Q. This is kind of more an off-the-field question, but this team has a lot of goofiness to it, like the Hayden Travinski shirt, the Jobu statue. As a coach, what's it like to see these fun things that kind of bring your team together? I was talking to Hayden. He said he thinks more successful teams have goofy clubhouses. JAY JOHNSON: Yeah, I won't take any credit for the goofiness. That's for sure. No, I really want players to be themselves, but to become a team. I think that's been a big part of why I think this has worked, is there was talented players here that were going to be coming into their own; that we tried to give them a development template, but for them to develop, they have to be at the field. For them to develop as a team, they have to be together. So part of that they have to take ownership in. So if you let them be themselves, obviously within reason, with class and character and all those types of things, I've always just found the buy-in goes up tremendously. Yeah, as far as Travinski T-shirt and all that, we're good. They can -- as long as it's appropriate, I'm good with it. Q. I'm wondering if you can expand on, when I asked Dylan earlier, just about your team being able to kind of adapt different roles. Gavin Guidry was probably looking at infield and then certainly was a pitcher. Tre' was in left field a good part of the year. Can you just speak on that mentality as a whole from the players, and then is there a particular player that maybe at the beginning of the year you thought had a role and then he has kind of evolved into a different one for you guys that you are really proud of? JAY JOHNSON: Yeah, I'm very proud of all of that. I mean, we have a saying that I will always place the needs of the team above my own. Going into August when they were all going to show up, a lot was made of the returning players, and rightfully so. Dylan is coming back. Tre' Morgan is coming back. Jordan Thompson is coming back. So we had a nice core to start out with that had some successful playing experience. They won 40 games and finished in the top four in the SEC last year. Then you had this high school recruiting class, number one class in the country: Paxton Kling, Chase Shores, Jared Jones, Brady Neal, Gavin Guidry. All these guys that are going to carry the torch of this thing after this year is over. Well, then you go in the transfer portal, and it's Paul Skenes, Tommy White, Christian Little, Thatcher Hurd, Ben Nippolt. So that's an amazing collection of talent, but in the first meeting I said that doesn't make us a team. Developing them as people, developing them as teammates, not just accepting their role, but embracing it, and communicating it might look different in game 1 than game 10, it might look different in game 20, game 50, and then in Omaha. That's been the case. There are so many good examples of that. Cade Beloso was probably in line to get a bunch more at-bats early, but Tommy hurt his shoulder, so he couldn't play defense for a number of games. That really pinched him into the DH role. Cade got pushed out a little bit. Hayden Travinski didn't have a lot of at-bats the first 25, 30 games of the year. There's not a better hitter in college baseball right now than him. Josh Pearson was a starter all year last year. Kind of got beat out at the beginning of the year. Yet, when it's been winning time, that's the guy I want in the box. So they've all been ready to make their contribution because they made it about the team rather than themselves. I can't speak higher than that because I think it's incredibly uncommon nowadays. Q. You talked before, of course, about Paul Skenes' impact on this team. The way that younger players have been able to now watch him over the last year, do you think, even though he was only here for 11 months or so, that there is going to be a lasting effect on this program because he was in it at some point? JAY JOHNSON: Yes, and I would say the exact same thing for Dylan. This happened within a week's time. I had both of them in my office about different things. The comment came up from both of them, hey, what can we help you do to keep pushing this forward? Like, what's happening right now. It was right around the middle, beginning of the SEC. We just won at Texas A&M, just beaten Arkansas, just beaten Tennessee. Going through that meat grinder of a schedule. I'm thinking about these guys have their entire life in front of them. They're going to make a lot of money and play in the Major Leagues, be All-Stars, win batting titles, Cy Young, potential Hall of Famers. That's what's in front of them. Yet, their mind is wrapped up around this when they're not going to be here. They are the best examples of that. The fact that they even have the awareness to bring it up, there's no question about it. I don't think there's another Paul Skenes in our locker room, and I don't want anybody to try to be Paul Skenes, but I want them to take the things that he has shown and then emulate them the best way that they can to pay forward that contribution that they got from him. I think that's totally going to happen. Q. Now with a whole year with the strength coach almost, Derek Groomer, how is his style of training different from maybe what this team had before, and what have you seen specifically out of him that has impacted the players this year? JAY JOHNSON: He is very knowledgeable, and that created buy-in immediately. He is very detailed in the individual planning per player I think is the hook. It's applicability to what we need them to do on the field. Whether it's an infielder being able to play lower, is that a lower half strength issue or hip mobility issue? Hey, Derek, this is what we need this guy to be able to do. And then to write the program of what they're doing in the weight room to get it and to get the player there, he is exceptional at that. So I think his ability to get buy-in from the player and then execute a plan that's going to translate on the field to baseball is where he has made the biggest impact. Q. You had some bullpen issues in the middle of the season. Who has kind of stepped up for that role as tournament play has gone on? JAY JOHNSON: Yeah, I think following the SEC tournament, the regional, the super regional, the last regular season weekend at Georgia, those guys have been outstanding. I think there's a number of guys that have made a positive contribution to the point where I really don't want to leave anybody out. We had a lightning delay in Game 2 or the winner's bracket game of the regional, and Thatcher came in and gave us five innings from the fourth to the eighth. You don't necessarily look at him as a bullpen guy, but he closed out a couple of really big SEC wins and that five innings, 13 strike-out performance against Oregon State is as good as you can do. Right behind him is Gavin Guidry, and for me he is the star of the show with that. He is a freshman. He was a two-way player, but his poise, his confidence, his ability to block out what's going on around him and execute is second to none. Then we've really, really leaned on Riley Cooper. Though he started Game 3 of the regional, he came in in a high-leverage situation in the super regional and got us three really good innings. I would guess in the last three years there's not too many people with multiple super regional wins under their belt. Riley has done that. Then Gavin came in to close it out again. There's guys kind of just waiting in the wings that I think are in a really good spot too. Whether it be Javen Coleman, Blake Money got us an inning and a third in the super regional last week. Nate Ackenhausen, huge piece of our team. When he pitches, we win typically. I think you could call it struggle. I would just call it, like, life in the SEC. Nobody played a schedule like we did, and it wasn't going to be perfect no matter how good these guys are. I'm just proud of them for adjusting their preparation, getting through that difficulty, and just getting back to executing. Q. The guys mentioned that post-SEC tournament meeting. Thematically, what would you say was the nugget that everybody got out of it pushing forward? JAY JOHNSON: We just needed a little bit of a reset. I intentionally did not come down on them or crush them when we lost back-to-back series because I trusted the talent enough, I trusted the work enough, I trusted the approach enough. I looked at it as Auburn is a national seed, and we're on the road, and we were ahead in one of those games. If one inning goes a little bit different, we win that series too. Then, you know, we had that tough loss against Mississippi State. Well, in Saturday of that game we were ahead in the eighth inning also. Obviously had the big bullpen lead. It was a good time to reset, address, and it was a very simplistic message. Right head, right heart; we're five wins away from the College World Series. Right head, right heart; we are five wins from there from a National Championship. We absolutely can do this. Let's get back in the preparation. Let's get back in character, and we're going for it. It was just as simple as that.  Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi aDa Boot Sports 6/11/2023 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA - LSU returned to Alex Box Stadium/Skip Bertman Field on Sunday afternoon looking to officially punch their ticket to the College World Series with one more win after defeating Kentucky, 14-0 on Saturday night in game one. The Tigers punched their ticket to the CWS with a 8-3 victory over the Wildcats. True Freshman Gavin Guidry was amazing, earning the save, pitching the final 2.2 innings, giving up no runs on one hit while striking out four batters. Both Ty Floyd and Riley Cooper each had solid outings. "Wow, first off, thanks for your patience. That's special out there and did not want to rush off the field." Jay Johnson said. "And so proud of this team. Coming here was a big move, personally, and professionally just had a vision of what tonight would look like. And I wanted these guys to experience that so bad. This is about the players. And whether it's culture, team, buy-in, connectedness, whether it's baseball, there's been a lot of blood, sweat and tears put in the bucket over the 700-whatever days we've been here. And they're champions. And really excited to go to Omaha and chase a national championship with them. And if they are in character, we'll have a great chance to do that." The Wildcats took the early lead in the bottom of the first when Jase Felker hit a solo shot off of Ty Floyd to go up 1-0. The Tigers pulled even in the second inning when Gavin Dugas was able to score from third base when dylan Crews made it to first base safely on a fielder's choice. 1-1 as the game headed to the bottom of the inning. LSU took the lead in the top of the third when Cade Beloso hit a three run homer to right center putting the purple and gold up, 4-1. Tommy White added another run to the lead as he singled with the bases loaded to bring Jordan Thompson in from third. 5-1 LSU as we head to the bottom of the frame. Kentucky answered in the bottom of the third when Devin Burkes homered to center field cutting the LSU lead to 5-2. Kentucky put another run up in the bottom of the fourth when Nolan McCarthy hit the Wildcats' third solo homer of the contest putting the score at 5-3 Tigers. LSU was able to pick up an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning. With the bases loaded a wild pitch allowed Gavin Dugas to score from third base. 6-3 Tigers. Dylan Crews then added to the lead as he hit a two RBI double at his last plate appearance in the Box, to left field to extend the advantage to 8-3. The Tigers return to Omaha for the first time since 2017. What an amazing season and it's not over yet Tiger FANS!!! HOW BOUT DEM TIGERS!!??? See y'all in Omaha!!!! Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi Photos Below By: Jonathan Mailhes *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication!  Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 6/10/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: William Franques BATON ROUGE, La. – Right-hander Paul Skenes tossed 7.2 shutout innings and LSU’s hitters launched six home runs Saturday night to lift the No. 5 national seed Tigers to a 14-0 victory over No. 12 national seed Kentucky in the first game of the NCAA Super Regional round at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. With the win, LSU leads the best-of-three series, 1-0, as the Tigers improved to 47-15 on the season and the Wildcats dropped to 40-20. Game 2 of the Baton Rouge Super Regional between LSU and Kentucky is scheduled for a 5 p.m. CT start Sunday evening, and the contest will be televised on ESPN2. The matchup may also be heard on the LSU Sports Radio Network. Skenes (12-2) earned the win after firing 7.2 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits with one walk and nine strikeouts. He increased his season strikeouts total to 188, the second-highest single-season mark in LSU history. With Skenes’ final strikeout of the night, the LSU pitching staff established a school record for strikeouts in a season with 684. Kentucky starter Zack Lee (5-4) was charged with the loss after working 4.0 innings and allowing nine runs on nine hits with no walks and six strikeouts. The two teams were originally scheduled to play at 2 p.m. CT Saturday before NCAA officials initiated a weather delay before the first pitch. The start of the contest was delayed until 9:06 p.m. CT, when the Tigers and Wildcats finally squared off. After the lengthy weather delay, LSU first baseman Tre’ Morgan got the Tigers on the board with a solo shot to left field. In the bottom of the third, third baseman Tommy White and Morgan added to the evening’s dinger total. To begin the two-out rally, centerfielder Dylan Crews recorded an infield single and scored on White’s two-run shot. Morgan followed with his second homer of the game to make the score 4-0. Morgan’s multi-home run outing marked the second time he has hit two dingers in one game. He last accomplished the feat on May 14, 2023, when the Tigers faced Mississippi State. Second baseman Gavin Dugas tacked on to the Tigers’ home run total with a solo dinger to left field, and LSU led 5-0 after four innings. The Tigers scored six runs in the bottom half of the fifth to take a double-digit lead. The frame began with a solo homer from left fielder Josh Pearson. After, Crews reached base on an error, and White singled, Morgan collected his third hit of the night with an RBI single to increase the margin to 6-0. LSU loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch from catcher Hayden Travinski and right fielder Brayden Jobert earned an RBI via a bases-loaded HBP. With the bases still juiced, Morgan scored on a wild pitch. Shortstop Jordan Thompson delivered a two-out, two-RBI single to widen the gap to 11-0. White launched his 22nd homer of the season – and his second of the game – to give LSU a 12-0 lead. With that dinger, the 2023 LSU baseball squad hit its 132nd homer of the year, giving it sole possession of third place on school’s all-time list for home runs in a season. The Tigers added two more runs in the seventh inning, as Thompson provided an RBI single and centerfielder Dylan Crews added a sacrifice fly. Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi  Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 6/5/2023 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA - The Tigers (45-15) face Oregon State (41-19) in the finals of the 2023 Baton Rouge Regional on Monday afternoon. The winner advances to the Super Regional round next weekend. LSU needs only one more win to punch their ticket while the Beavers will need to beat the Tigers twice to move on. The Bayou Bengals took care of business, defeating Oregon State, 13-7 and will host a Super Regional next weekend to battle for the right to go to Omaha against either Kentucky or Indiana. "Really proud of the team. I think this was a great week. The preparation by the players and the staff was elite." Jay Johnson said. "And then the execution on the field by the players on all sides of the ball was outstanding. Great job by our pitching staff for the three games. Really proud of the guys today the way they executed what we laid out for them. Defensively, I thought we had a great weekend. One error today. But I think that was it. And then offensively, really, really, really strong performance in three different kind of ways. But I think it shows the capability of this team. And really proud of them. And we're going to get reset, put together another great week, and get prepared for the coming weekend." LSU took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning when Brayden Jobert got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, sending Hayden Travinski in from third. With the bases still loaded Jordan Thompson stepped to the plate and flied out to deep left field allowing Cade Beloso to tag up and score from third base. LSU continued to heat up as Josh Pearson hit a two RBI triple to extend the lead to 4-0. The Beaves refused to quit as they cut LSU's lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth on a two run home run by Gavin Turley. Hayden Travinski got a run back for LSU as he hit a solo home run over the left field wall in the top of the fifth. Cade Beloso then stepped to the plate next and blasted a solo shot to right field. 6-2 Tigers. Dylan Crews lead off the top of the sixth inning and increased the LSU lead to 7-2 with a solo homer over the left field wall. the Beavers answered in the bottom of the sixth with a two run homer by Brady Kasper to cut the LSU lead to 7-4. LSU quickly got a run back when Gavin Dugas led off the top of the seventh with a home run to left field. 8-4 Tigers. LSU continued to inflict damage at the plate in the inning as the Tigers loaded the bases for Tommy White who hit a two RBI single to right field to put LSU up 10-4. Dylan Crews would then score from third base on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 11-4. Travinski then singled in Tommy White to add another run to the lead. 12-4 Tigers as the game headed to the bottom of the seventh. Tigers padded the lead in the ninth when Tre' Morgan doubled down the right field line to bring Crews home to make the score 13-4. The Beavers were able to pick up a few garbage runs in their final at bat. Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication!  Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 6/4/2023 By: Terrill J. Weil CATON ROUGE, LA - LSU was scheduled to meet Oregon State on Saturday night in Regional play but inclement weather forced the contest to be moved to Sunday with a 2pm start. The rescheduled start didn't phase the Tigers as they defeated the Beavers, 6-5. "Great college baseball game. Two great teams. Highly competitive." Jay Johnson said. "Great start by Ty. Did a great job for the three innings he was out there. I thought the team did a good job being poised and focused during the rain delay. Thatcher came out and gave us a brilliant performance, 12 strikeouts. He's the best pitcher in the country tonight. Great poise by Gavin at the end. Proud of the hitters. The first couple of innings we really did exactly what we wanted to do, other than finish the inning off with one more quality at-bat. Stayed with it.It's a lot of unique guys we saw out of the bullpen. But we did what we needed to do against each guy and got the swings we needed. Good game and get ready for tomorrow." Oregon State took an early 1-0 lead when Travis Bazzana hit a leadoff home run to start the third inning, LSU was able to get back into the dugout after not allowing anymore damage in the inning thanks to a great defensive effort, before a lightning delay halted play. LSU starting pitcher Ty Floyd didn't return to the bump after the lengthy three hour weather delay being replaced by Thatcher Hurd. The Beavers were able to extend their lead in the fourth. Brady Kasper launched a solo shot over the left field wall before Tanner Smith would score from third on a base hit by Bazzana. The game headed to the bottom of the frame with Oregon State up, 3-0. The Tigers answered in the inning. Josh Pearson tripled off of the right field wall. With Pearson standing on third base, Dylan Crews stepped to the plate and blasted a two run homer to left center field to cut the Beavers lead to 3-2. The LSU bats heated up in the bottom of the fifth inning as Hayden Travinski blasted a lead off homer to left field, then Cade Beloso followed with a solo shot over the right field fence, giving the Tigers a 4-3 advantage. Josh Pearson put the Tigers up 5-3 with a solo homer over the right center field wall in the sixth inning. Oregon State showed LSU that they had no plans on giving up as they pulled even at 5-5 in the top of the seventh on a two run homer by Gavin Turley. The Alex Box Stadium crowd erupted as Brayden Jobert launched a lead off homer to center field to give LSU a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. True freshman Gavin Guidry entered the game to register the final three outs for the Tigers. Hurd pitched five innings, giving up four runs on seven hits while striking out a career high 12 batters. Ty Floyd went three innings giving up one run on five hit, striking out five. LSU will now face the winner of Sunday night's elimination game between Oregon State and Sam Houston State on Monday in the regional final, TBA... Photo Below By: Michael Bacigalupi Photos Below By: Jonathan Mailhes *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication!  Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 6/2/2023 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA - It's the 27th time LSU has hosted a NCAA Regional. The Tigers (43-15) will be looking to take down Tulane (19-40) in game one of the Baton Rouge Baseball Regional, and that's just what they did with Paul Skenes, College Baseball Newspaper's Player of the Year, registering 12 strikeouts while pitching the first complete game of his career, as he befuddled the Greenie Weenie hitters all day while the LSU offense quietly put up 7 runs in the 7-2 victory. "Good performance by our team." Jay Johnson said. "Obviously great from Paul from the mound. Speaks for itself. Very clean game defensively. Great play by Jordan Thompson on the popup. Nice place by Tommy on the runner. Offensively we executed. We got lead-off guys on. Had a number of times we had three quality at-bats in a row. Excellent with runners on base. Move on to tomorrow." LSU drew first blood in the first inning when Hayden Travinski doubled to score Dylan Crews from third base. 1-0 LSU as we headed to the top of the second inning. The Tigers platted two more runs in the second. Gavin Dugas scored from third when Josh Pearson grounded out to second base, followed by a RBI double by Dylan Crews. 3-0 LSU after two. LSU would add to the lead in the third. With runners on second and third and only one out, Brayden Jobert grounded out to first brining Travinski in from third. 4-0 Tigers after three innings. The Tigers increased their advantage to 6-0 in fifth inning. Dugas flied out to deep center field to bring Travinski in from third, then Pearson flied out to left field to bring Beloso in from third. Tulane finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the seventh when Brennan Lambert hit a two run dinger over the right center field wall to cut LSU's lead to 6-2. LSU got a run back in the bottom of the eighth inning when Travinski drew a walk with the bases loaded for the run. 7-2 lsu after eight. The Tigers slide into the winners bracket where they will play Oregon State on Saturday night at 8:00pm CST. Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi Photos Below By: Jonathan Mailhes *John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring our publication!  Photo By: Da Boot Sports Da Boot Sports 5/29/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: William Franques BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU was announced as the No. 5 national seed for the NCAA Baseball Tournament Monday, and the Tigers will open the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional at 2 p.m. CT Friday when they face Tulane in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. The No. 5 National Seed marks LSU’s first appearance among the Top 8 seeds since 2017, when the Tigers were No. 4. LSU (43-15) is the No. 1 seed in the Baton Rouge Regional and Tulane (19-40), the American Athletic Conference Tournament champion, is the regional’s No. 4 seed. The LSU-Tulane game will be televised on ESPNU and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network. No. 2 seed Oregon State will meet No. 3 seed Sam Houston at 7 p.m. Friday in the second game of the Baton Rouge Regional, and the contest will be streamed on ESPN +. The regional continues through the weekend, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Super Regional next weekend versus the winner of the Lexington (Ky.) Regional. 2023 NCAA BATON ROUGE REGIONAL SCHEDULE Friday, June 2 Game 1: (1) LSU vs (4) Tulane – 2 p.m. (ESPNU) Game 2: (2) Oregon State vs (3) Sam Houston – 7 p.m. (ESPN +) Saturday, June 3 Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 – TBD Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 - TBD Sunday, June 4 Game 5: Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 - TBD Game 6: Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4 - TBD Monday, June 5 Game 7: Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4 – TBD *if necessary Logo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 5/28/2023 LSU Sports Communications BATON ROUGE, La. – The NCAA announced Sunday night that LSU will serve as one of 16 host sites for an NCAA Baseball Regional. The four-team, double-elimination regional at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field will begin on Friday. The matchups and starting times for the Baton Rouge Regional and the entire 64-team field will be announced at 11 a.m. CT Monday on ESPN2. LSU is playing host to an NCAA Regional for the 27th time and for the first time since 2019. Below is ticket information for the 2023 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional:
NCAA Postseason History at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field NCAA Regional Tournaments (27): 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023 NCAA Super Regional Series (11): 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019  Photo By: BVM Sports Da Boot Sports 5/26/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: William Franques HOOVER, Ala. – Texas A&M shortstop Hunter Haas launched a three-run homer Friday in the bottom of the seventh inning to erase a 3-2 deficit, as the Aggies posted a 5-4 win over LSU in an SEC Tournament elimination game at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. LSU, which is 43-15 this season, will return to action next Friday in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are projected to play host to an NCAA Regional in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. Regional sites will be announced by the NCAA at 7:30 p.m. CT Sunday. The entire 64-team NCAA Tournament field will be announced during a selection show at 11 a.m. CT on Monday on ESPN2. With Friday’s win, Texas A&M improved to 35-24 and will face Arkansas at 12 p.m. CT Saturday in an SEC Tournament semifinal. “There's a lot to be gained from being here, and we'll use that to get ready for the NCAA Tournament,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “I think our team has had a great regular season, to put ourselves in one of those spots where we're going to be one of the eight that have an opportunity to host a regional and then host a super regional if we're able to win the regional. It's a credit to the players. “We'll get back to work when we get home and get ready to go for next Friday.” LSU led 3-1 entering the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Aggies struck for four runs to take a 5-3 lead. Designated hitter Brett Minnich delivered a sacrifice fly to narrow the gap to 3-2, and after a walk to catcher Max Kaufer, Haas launched a three-run homer to give the Aggies their first lead of the game. The Tigers scored a run in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch by Texas A&M reliever Evan Aschenbeck, but with runners and first and third and two outs, he retired the final two LSU hitters to end the game. Aschenbeck (8-1) was credited with the win, as he worked the final 3.0 innings and limited LSU to one run on four hits with one walk and four strikeouts. LSU reliever Griffin Herring (3-2) was charged with the loss, as he allowed three runs on one hit in 1.1 innings with two walks and no strikeouts. LSU took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on an RBI single by third baseman Brayden Jobert. The Aggies tied the game in the bottom of the second on consecutive doubles by centerfielder Jordan Thompson and by leftfielder Ryan Targac. The Tigers led 2-1 in the fourth after an RBI double by Jobert, and LSU extended the advantage to 3-1 in the fifth on a double by catcher Hayden Travinski. LSU starting pitcher Ty Floyd delivered a solid outing, limiting the Aggies to one run on three hits in 5.0 innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. “We've got to get our health right, and then get the players’ minds right because playoff baseball is one pitch at a time,” Johnson said. “It's not the team with the best players, it's the team that plays the best, which we've done a lot of this year. I trust the guys that we have on the field. I trust them a lot, and I trust their care level and their character. I'm excited to get back to work with them after we get them a day or two off.”  Photo By: NOLA.com Da Boot Sports 5/25/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: William Franques HOOVER, Ala. – A five-run fourth-inning lifted fourth-ranked Arkansas on Thursday to a 5-4 win over fifth-ranked LSU in the SEC Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. LSU, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, is 43-14 on the year and will face No. 10 seed Texas A&M in a tournament elimination game at 3 p.m. CT Friday. The game will be broadcast on affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network and televised on the SEC Network. Arkansas (41-15) advances to the tournament semifinal round and will face the LSU-Texas A&M winner at Noon CT on Saturday. Arkansas left-hander Hunter Hollan (8-2) earned the win, working the final 5.1 innings and limiting LSU to two runs on six hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Razorbacks starting pitcher Hagen Smith pitched the first 3.2 innings and allowed two runs on five hits with one walk and nine strikeouts. Hollan and Smith also combined to defeat LSU in a regular-season meeting on March 24. “In my opinion, at least who we saw, and we didn’t play everybody, Smith and Hollan are the two best guys we saw all year,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “So that’s twice that they’ve used both of them against us to win. “I think that speaks a lot about our team offensively that it takes two pitchers like that to hold us down, and credit to them for doing a good job.” LSU starting pitcher Paul Skenes (10-2) was charged with the loss, as he allowed five runs – only two earned – on four hits in 3.2 innings with two walks and three strikeouts. LSU grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when first baseman Tre’ Morgan delivered an RBI single against Smith. The Tigers added a run in the fourth when designated hitter Hayden Travinski – who was 4-for-4 at the plate – scored from third base on a wild pitch by Hollan. Arkansas, however, struck for five runs in the bottom of the fourth against Skenes to take a 5-2 lead. Third baseman Caleb Cali and second baseman Peyton Holt provided RBI singles to tie the game at 2-2. Arkansas loaded the bases with two outs later in the inning, and LSU reliever Riley Cooper retired designated hitter Kendall Diggs on a pop-up to shortstop, seemingly ending the inning with the 2-2 score. The home plate umpire, however, ruled that LSU catcher Alex Milazzo interfered with Diggs’ swing, allowing him to reach first base and Cali to score from third base. Rightfielder Jace Bohrofen followed with a two-out, two-run single to increase the Arkansas advantage to 5-2. “(Diggs) probably hit his glove, so I’m not saying the umpire is wrong on that,” Johnson said, “but that’s a tough way to give up three runs.” Cooper was brilliant in relief, allowing LSU to narrow the deficit. He worked 4.1 innings, allowing no runs on two hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. “Riley was phenomenal,” Johnson said. “We’re really pleased with him; I thought he looked fresh and rested. He rose to the occasion against one of the better teams in the country. He did a really good job.” The Tigers plated a run in the eighth when shortstop Jordan Thompson lined an RBI single to left field. Centerfielder Dylan Crews blasted a one-out, solo homer in the ninth – his 15th dinger of the season – but Hollan retired the next two LSU hitters to end the game.  Photo By: Charlotte Observer Da Boot Sports 5/24/2023 By: David Penn HOOVER, AL - Thatcher Hurd got the call for #5 LSU (43-13) in their first game of the SEC tournament and turned in a quality start that limited South Carolina to 3 runs on 4 hits through 5.1 innings, Hurd only walked 2 hitters and earned 4 Ks. The offense backed the pitching with 12 hits that produced 10 runs for LSU which was highlighted by a two run blast by Brayden Jobert that started the scoring in the second inning. “It was a really good performance by our team,” Coach Jay Johnson said. “It starts with Thatcher. Great start. Had command of all his pitches. Really got himself reset when he got into any type of trouble, whether it was the count or runners on base, and he did a terrific job. We played a very clean game defensively, and when your pitcher pitches like that, it makes it much easier to do that.” Hurd had been producing for LSU as a closer his last few outings, showing good command of the strike zone and shutting down the opposition, which earned him the start vs the Gamecocks. Hurd (4-2) had limited the Gamecocks to 1 run until the sixth inning when he issued a bases-loaded walk that accounted for South Carolina’s second run of the game. Sam Dutton walked the only batter he faced in the sixth inning with the bases loaded that accounted for the Gamecocks final run of the game and cut the LSU lead 6-3. Coach Jay Johnson went back to the bullpen to bring in Nate Ackenhausen, who would come on for LSU and go the rest of the distance, not allowing South Carolina another run. Ackenhausen notched 6 Ks in the 3.2 innings he worked and earned his second save. The Tigers saw the ball well from the batter’s box throughout the game hitting .363 as a team and 8 different Tigers accounted for the 12 hits. Jobert launched his 2 run shot over the right field wall in the second inning. The Tigers would add four more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning when Josh Pearson and Tommy White drew bases loaded walks that scored Jobert and Gavin Dugas. Tre’ Morgan hit a sac fly that scored Dylan Crews, followed by another sac fly from Hayden Travinski that scored Josh Pearson, which gave LSU a 6-1 lead through five innings. LSU would add a pair of runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Morgan and Travisnski hit RBI singles in the sixth that scored Crews and Pearson, and in the seventh inning Crews and White hit RBI singles that scored Paxton Kling and Dugas. Crews, Pearson, White, and Jobert had 2 hits each. White, Morgan, Hayden Travinski, and Jobert each collected 2 RBIs. The lone long ball for the Tigers came off the bat of Brayden Jobert. Ethan Petry homered off Hurd in the 5th inning to put South Carolina on the board before a pair of bases loaded walks scratched across in the sixth. Eli Jones got the start for South Carolina and was charged with the loss, giving him a 4-4 record on the year. LSU moves on in the winner’s bracket and will face Arkansas for the fourth time this season tomorrow at 5:30pm, Arkansas walked off TA&M 6-5 in extra innings. Coach Jay Johnson picked up the 400th win of his career.  Photo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 5/20/2023 LSU Sports Communications By: William Franques ATHENS, Ga. – Centerfielder Ben Anderson and first baseman Charlie Condon combined for four RBI Saturday to lead Georgia to a 9-5 win over fourth-ranked LSU in Foley Field. LSU, which will be the No. 3 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., completed the regular season 42-13 overall and 19-10 in conference play. The No. 3 SEC Tournament seed is LSU’s highest since the 2017 Tigers were the No. 1 seed in the event. The 2023 SEC Tournament bracket, including all seedings and matchups, will be released Saturday evening. LSU will play Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. CT against the winner of Tuesday’s game between the winner of the No. 6 seed and the No. 11 seed. The Tigers, the SEC’s No. 4 seed last season, have finished in the Top 4 in the overall SEC standings in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2014 and 2015. LSU’s second-place finish in the SEC Western Division is its best since the Tigers won the Western Division in 2017. LSU in 2023 has its most SEC regular-season wins since the 2017 club won 21 SEC games, and the Tigers recorded their most overall regular-season wins since the 2015 club ended the regular season with 46 victories. “We have very good players who compete very hard; they care about each other, and they care about winning,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “They’ve done a great job to put themselves in this position, and I think we’ll be prepared to play well from this point forward.” Georgia, which earned the SEC Tournament’s final berth with Saturday’s victory, completed the regular season with a 29-26 overall record, 11-19 in the SEC. Georgia starting pitcher Liam Sullivan (5-2) earned the win, as he worked 5.1 innings and limited the Tigers to three runs on three hits with four walks and five strikeouts. LSU starting pitcher Javen Coleman (1-2), was charged with the loss as he allowed four runs – three earned – on four hits in 3.0 innings with two walks and two strikeouts. Georgia reliever Nolan Crisp picked up his second save of the season, retiring LSU shortstop Jordan Thompson on a fly ball to center field with the bases loaded to end the game. “We’ve played our way into a great position to play all of our NCAA postseason games at home,” Johnson said. “We’re disappointed about the loss today, but we’ve put ourselves in great position to achieve our goals, and we’re excited about that. “Playoff baseball is about being mentally strong and defaulting to your fundamentals and training. Today’s game will help us do that as we prepare for the postseason.” LSU opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when leftfielder Tre’ Morgan launched a two-run homer, his seventh dinger of the season. The Bulldogs tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the second inning when designated hitter Fernando Gonzalez provided an RBI single, and Georgia scored an unearned run on an LSU infield error. Georgia took a 3-2 lead in the third when Connor Tate hit a solo homer, his 16th of the year. The Bulldogs struck for three runs in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly by Anderson and a two-run homer by Condon, his 25th of the season. LSU narrowed the deficit to 6-4 in the sixth when first baseman Cade Beloso’s unloaded his 11th homer of the year, and the Tigers executed a double steal with rightfielder Brayden Jobert scoring from third base. The Bulldogs responded in the bottom of the frame with a bases-loaded walk to third baseman Parks Harber before LSU reduced the margin to 7-5 in the top of the seventh on third baseman Tommy White’s home run, his 20th of the year. Georgia, however, scored two more runs in the seventh on a fielder’s choice grounder by rightfielder Dwight Allen and an RBI double by Anderson. SEC TOURNAMENT INFO BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU is the No. 3 seed in next week’s SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala., and will play its first game at 9:30 a.m. CT Wednesday against either No. 6 seed South Carolina or No. 11 seed Georgia. The No. 3 SEC Tournament seed is LSU’s highest since the 2017 Tigers were the No. 1 seed in the event. The Tigers completed the 2023 regular season 42-13 overall and 19-10 in conference play. LSU recorded its most SEC regular-season wins since the 2017 club won 21 SEC games, and the Tigers posted their most overall regular-season wins since the 2015 squad ended the regular season with 46 victories. The Tigers, the SEC’s No. 4 seed last season, have finished in the Top 4 in the overall SEC standings in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2014 and 2015. LSU’s second-place finish in the SEC Western Division is its best since the Tigers won the Western Division in 2017. South Carolina and Georgia will meet at 9:30 a.m. CT Tuesday in a single-elimination contest, and the winners advances to meet LSU at 9:30 a.m. CT Wednesday in the first day of double-elimination play. Wednesday’s LSU game vs. South Carolina or Georgia will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and televised by the SEC Network. LSU leads the SEC with 12 league tournament titles, with the most recent one coming in 2017. Below is the entire 2023 SEC Tournament Bracket: 2023 SEC Baseball Tournament Bracket (PDF) 2023 SEC Tournament Tuesday-Sunday, May 23-28 Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, Hoover, Ala. Tuesday, May 23 Game 1 (9:30 a.m.) - #6 South Carolina vs. #11 Georgia [SEC Network] Game 2 (TBD) - #7 Tennessee vs. #10 Texas A&M [SEC Network] Game 3 (4:30 p.m.) - #8 Kentucky vs. #9 Alabama [SEC Network] Game 4 (TBD) - #5 Auburn vs. #12 Missouri [SEC Network] Wednesday, May 24 Game 5 (9:30 a.m.) - #3 LSU vs. Winner Game 1 [SEC Network] Game 6 (TBD) - #2 Arkansas vs. Winner Game 2 [SEC Network] Game 7 (4:30 p.m.) - #1 Florida vs. Winner Game 3 [SEC Network] Game 8 (TBD) - #4 Vanderbilt vs. Winner Game 4 [SEC Network] Thursday, May 25 Game 9 (9:30 a.m.) - Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6 [SEC Network] Game 10 (TBD) - Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8 [SEC Network] Game 11 (4:30 p.m.) - Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 [SEC Network] Game 12 (TBD) - Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8 [SEC Network] Friday, May 26 Game 13 (3 p.m.) - Winner Game 9 vs. Loser Game 11 [SEC Network] Game 14 (TBD) - Winner Game 10 vs. Loser 12 [SEC Network] Saturday, May 27 Game 15 (Noon) - Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 11 [SEC Network] Game 16 ( TBD) - Winner Game 14 vs. Winner Game 12 [SEC Network] Sunday, May 28 Game 17 (2 p.m.) - Winner Game 15 vs. Winner Game 16 [ESPN2] All Times Central The second game of each session will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.  Photo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 5/19/2023 By: David Penn ATHENS, GA - #5 LSU (42-12, 19-9) bounced back to win its final SEC series on the road against the Georgia Bulldogs (28-26, 10-19), on Friday, 8-4 in an important series for both teams. LSU is playing for a chance to win the regular season SEC title and UGA is playing for a spot in the SEC tournament, the series will also play a factor for the seeding in the SEC tournament as well as LSU’s national seed, The Tigers are currently projected to be the fifth seed, which would allow the Tigers to host a regional and super regional at Alex Box Stadium. Ty Floyd took the mound for the Tigers in game two of the series and worked seven innings, allowing four runs on five hits. Floyd fanned seven Bulldogs and only issued one base on balls and has looked solid in his last several starts for the Tigers, which will bode well for postseason play as the Tigers have been looking for consistency behind Friday night ace Paul Skenes. Gavin Guidry took the mound for the final two frames and only gave up one hit, not allowing the UGA to score, Guidry didn’t walk any of the seven batters faced and struck out three Dawgs. After delivering big for the Tigers on Thursday night, Josh Pearson was inserted into the starting lineup on Friday and again came up big for LSU. Pearson went 2-3 at the plate and drove in three runs for LSU. Tommy White added to his league-leading RBI total with a pair of hits which included a sac fly in the fourth frame and a solo shot in the sixth inning giving him 86 RBIs on the season, good for second in the NCAA. UGA started the Scoring with a two run homer in the first inning when Parks Harber slammed a two run shot in the first inning. LSU got on the board with a three run fourth inning to give the Tigers their first lead. Pearson earned his first RBI by drawing a bases-loaded walk that scored Cade Beloso. Dylan Crews would then single and score Brayden Jobert, White then scored Jordan Thompson on a sac fly. The Tigers added three more runs in the fifth when Thompson hit a sac fly that scored Beloso followed by Pearson hitting a 2 RBI single that scored Jobert and Gavin Dugas. White and Hayden Travinski would cap off the scoring with a pair of solo home runs in the visitor half of the sixth frame. The final margin was provided in the bottom of the seventh when Sebastian Murillo lifted a two run shot over the wall to cut the LSU lead in half 8-4. The series will conclude in Athens on Saturday at 12:00pm CST, The Tigers will look to earn the sweep and a possible one seed in the SEC tournament. For that to happen Vanderbilt will have to beat Arkansas in the Commodores final home game of the season. Up next for the Tigers will be the SEC Tournament in Hoover, AL before returning home to open up regional play on Skip Bertman Field. |
Archives
November 2023
|
RSS Feed