LSU Is Doing Something Magical In Omaha Right Now

June 23rd, 2023 MacAoidh

Hopefully we can say this without jinxing anything for the LSU baseball team which has won four out of five games in Omaha and will spend the weekend playing for a national title at the College World Series. But what we can say regardless of what happens going forward is that this trip for head coach Jay Johnson and his Tigers has been a legendary one.

Start with what happened last night – one of the most memorable, legendary college baseball games in the history of the sport. In fact, that 11-inning, 2-0 walkoff win over No. 1 seed Wake Forest could go down as one of the most important moments college baseball has had in terms of its impact on the game. It featured a showdown between Paul Skenes, LSU’s ace pitcher who’s very likely to be the top pick in the draft, and Rhett Lowder, Wake Forest’s ace who won’t make it out of the first half of the first round. Both delivered in amazing fashion; a pair of murderer’s-row batting lineups were completely hamstrung trying to hit them.

And then after eight innings both starters had given way to a pair of bullpen arms who could very well be first-round draft picks next year in Michael Massey for Wake Forest and Thatcher Hurd for LSU.

It was only when Massey left the game in the 11th inning, following the leadoff single by Dylan Crews for LSU, that the offensive dam finally broke with Tommy White’s game-winning home run.

This followed a sensational play by Tre Morgan at first base in the top of the eighth, in which he charged in to field a bunt and made a perfect flip to catcher Alex Milazzo to kill a safety squeeze at home plate and save what would very likely have been the winning run. The symmetry of that play, juxtaposed against a brilliant defensive play by Wake Forest third baseman Brock Wilken on Monday night in which Morgan was tagged out at home rather than scoring the go-ahead run, was stark.

The great pitching, the big plays, the grueling 11-inning struggle – the game had all the drama of great baseball. And with both teams showing off rosters dripping with future major leaguers, you couldn’t have a better showcase for the college game.

This LSU team has been that kind of showcase all year, although – as in any baseball season – it’s had moments of playing far below capacity. Who could believe, for example, that an LSU bullpen which has given up just two runs in 18 innings of work against Tennessee and Wake Forest in Omaha gave up a nine-run lead in a May game at home against a Mississippi State team which didn’t even make the SEC Tournament?

The pitching staff has been nothing short of miraculous in the postseason, giving pitching coach Wes Johnson, who’s headed to Georgia as their new head coach when the season ends, perhaps his career highlight. Hurd, for example, looked like a lost cause at midseason after several dreadful performances where he simply couldn’t command his pitches. Now? He’s pitching like a Friday night ace, which it’s expected he will be for LSU next year.

And the thing to remember is the Tigers have rounded their staff into form despite some very heavy losses. Five pitchers who would have been front-line arms for LSU never made it this far – before the season LSU lost big-league prospect Grant Taylor, JC transfer Kade Appleby and California high school star recruit Jared Noot to arm injuries, and during the season freshman Chase Shores and veteran junior Garrett Edwards both went down. The Shores and Edwards injuries lopped off the top end of LSU’s bullpen and created a weakness it took Johnson until the postseason to shore up.

Culminating in the amazing performance of the last several days.

Offense is extremely difficult in Omaha. The ballpark there doesn’t play like a college park at all; in fact, it changes the game in potentially unhealthy ways between the extreme shadows which cover home plate for evening games and the prevailing winds blowing in from center field which make lazy fly balls out of what would otherwise be launch-pieces. And LSU has faced a steady diet of big-league prospects – Tennessee’s Andrew Lindsey and Drew Beam, and Wake Forest’s Josh Hartle, Seth Keener and Lowder. For any college team to win 80 percent of their games against that kind of pitching is almost unheard of; LSU scored just enough to do it.

It’s a terrific accomplishment for a team which struggled to a 7-7 finish between the final four weeks of the regular season and the SEC Tournament. A lot of people though this was going to be a season that ended in disappointment.

And it may yet. Awaiting LSU for the three-game series beginning Saturday is a Florida team which won the SEC regular season title by a half-game (had the Tiger bullpen held that nine-run lead against Mississippi State it would have been LSU atop the standings instead), and Florida managed to win their side of the CWS bracket in three games rather than five. That could be significant; Florida’s pitching staff is set and rested for the championship series, whereas LSU’s is not because of the extra games.

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In 2017, this exact pattern played out. That year it was Oregon State rather than Wake Forest LSU had to slug past, and along the way the Tigers lost Eric Walker, their third starting pitcher. LSU didn’t have a weekend starter or Caleb Gilbert, their next best pitcher, available to start the first game of the championship series and they didn’t have ace Alex Lange at all for the first two games. Florida, meanwhile, had all of their pitching available. And that ultimately cost Paul Mainieri’s team a national title.

It’s similar this year, in that Skenes is probably unavailable until – maybe – a third game on Monday. That’s a crying shame, though it’s clear without him LSU wouldn’t have made it this far – you can’t blame Jay Johnson for pitching him last night even knowing that would burn him for the championship series. LSU didn’t play the Gators either in the regular season or the SEC Tournament, so there isn’t much of a frame of reference between them.

Florida is seeded ahead of the Tigers. They’ve had an easier time of it in Omaha, though the three games they did win were all one-run games against Virginia, Oral Roberts and TCU, none of whom looked like the nasty Tennessee and Wake Forest clubs LSU survived against. At this point it’s arguable which team in the final series is better.

But we do know this – LSU has taken over Omaha, and LSU has taken over college baseball.

You’re likely aware of the Jell-o Shot Challenge that Rocco’s Bar, a watering hole near the stadium, has been hosting. The bar charges five dollars for a Jell-o shot, and those buying them have to declare a team affiliation. Last year Ole Miss’ fans set the record on their way to a CWS championship with some 18,770 Jell-o shots bought and consumed.

Here was the latest from the Rocco’s tote board…

In every game played in Omaha LSU fans have been everywhere. In every game LSU has played, LSU fans have dominated the crowd.

It’s been six years since LSU was in the College World Series. The sport suffered for that absence. Not this year. This year they’ve made up for lost time.

Win or lose this weekend, LSU is back at the center of college baseball. Where they belong. And that’s one little piece of setting things right in the world.

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