There was nothing small about LSU’s 6-5 narrow victory over Oregon State on Saturday.
Big hits — every run plated by the Tigers’ five home runs.
Big pitches — Ty Floyd, Thatcher Hurd and Gavin Guidry combined to strike out 19 Beaver batters, tying LSU’s season high.
Even a big weather delay. Three hours and three minutes long, as Mother Nature displayed her big bat and wipeout breaking ball with more lightning bolts, more buckets of rain and gale force winds battering Alex Box Stadium.
It all conspired to cook up one of the more memorable NCAA regional games at LSU in recent history. A high risk, high reward victory for the Tigers, who got to sit back until Monday afternoon and await the winner of Sunday’s late-night elimination game between Oregon State and Sam Houston.
It’s an obvious thing to say that it was huge for LSU to win Sunday and not be forced to try to win this regional from the loser’s bracket. That would have meant three more games, and frankly, given the frequent “Who’s going to get the next out” nature of the Tigers’ pitching staff, that didn’t look like the path to the super regional. It looked like a ticket to the offseason.
Still, it seemed like LSU was put in a mighty big bind by the weather. Having thrown All-American ace Paul Skenes in the 7-2 win over Tulane on Friday, oh so many rain drops ago, the Tigers came back with No. 2 pitcher Floyd against the Beavers.
But Floyd had to go when the lightning started menacing The Box from the east midway through the third inning. The length of the weather delay made it impossible for him to return.
Enter Hurd. The guy who seemed a likely candidate to start the Friday game before the regional began, Hurd came in with a 1-0 deficit and quickly fell behind 3-0 when he gave up a home run to Brady Kasper and allowed Travis Bazzana (who homered off Floyd) to drive in Tanner Smith with an RBI single.
Over the next five innings, it was a string of shining moments and dim defeats with Hurd. Mostly the former. Yes, he gave up two more runs when Gavin Turley smacked a ball long, high and handsome over the center field wall to tie the game 5-5, but Hurd was mostly effective. Mixing a fastball in the low 90s with an elusive breaking ball, he went all Skenes by striking out 12, twice striking out the side. He finally left after the eighth, leaving Guidry to mop up the ninth in a fairly tidy 12 pitches.
Meanwhile, the Tigers stood in their batters’ boxes and played home run derby with the Beavers. Three times LSU left the bases loaded. This was no day for station-to-station ball. This was a day to swing for the fences or have a seat.
Dylan Crews hit a two-run homer to get LSU going in the fourth. Hayden Travinski and Cade Beloso went back-to-back in the fifth. Josh Pearson, the charge of the light-hitting brigade, went over the wall in the the sixth and Brayden Jobert left off with a round-tripper in the eighth that proved to be the game-winner. In all, LSU’s five homers was one off the Tigers’ season high on May 18 at Georgia.
Now LSU is where it was last year at Southern Mississippi, just one victory away from a super regional. The Tigers were denied that time by back-to-back losses to the host Golden Eagles, a frustration that helped fuel LSU’s drive to be a national contender in 2023.
The Tigers aren’t out of the woods yet. Now Skenes (can he come back and get you one key out?) and Floyd and Hurd are done, though LSU hasn’t tapped arms like Riley Cooper or Nate Ackenhausen or Javen Coleman yet.
It may be a call to all sorts of arms for the Tigers on a regional-deciding Monday, especially if more weather disrupts things.
But the Tigers look like they have the bit in their teeth. With the big hits and big pitches, they look confident in their ability to get the one more win they need to advance.
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