By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – It transpired as expected when No. 7 LSU and No. 6 Tennessee, the last two College World Series champions, collided in a three-game SEC series this past weekend before the largest crowds in history at Alex Box Stadium.
Every pitch mattered. So did every at-bat, every pitching change, every strategic move, every replay review.
Thanks to a six-run rally in LSU’s magnificent ninth inning in the Tigers’ 6-3 Game 1 win on Friday and sterling pitching and hitting performances from freshmen Casan Evans and Derek Curiel respectively in Sunday’s 12-2 eighth-inning run-rule victory, the Tigers won the series in an NCAA Regional type-atmosphere two games to one over their biggest current diamond rival.
LSU (36-9 overall, 14-7 SEC) captured its fifth league series and moved into a tie for second place with Arkansas (37-9, 14-7 SEC) with three remaining SEC regular season series remaining. The Tigers and the Razorbacks are one game ahead of Tennessee (35-9, 13-8 SEC).
“We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good spot,” said LSU head coach Jay Johnson, whose team hosts Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday before traveling to Texas A&M (24-19, 8-13 SEC) for a three-game series starting Friday. “We need to keep executing wins as they come along.”
The Tigers gained badly needed momentum by winning the Tennessee series. Last Tuesday, LSU was run-ruled for the first time in history by a non-conference opponent in a 13-3 loss to Northwestern State in seven innings.
“The past three weeks we haven’t been playing to the best of our ability,” said left fielder Derek Curiel, who went 4 for 4 with five RBI in Game 3. “Everyone in this locker room knows what we’re capable of, and we’re always super confident. The scoreboard sometimes doesn’t dictate that, but we never lose faith in each other. The coaching staff shows us full support.”
Despite being handled by two of the SEC’s best starting pitchers – Tennessee’s Liam Doyle and Marcus Phillips – in the Tigers’ Game 1 comeback win and in the Vols’ convincing 9-3 second-game conquest – LSU found a path to winning the series.
Despite being outhit by the Vols in hits (27 to 23) and in batting average (.270 to .232), 14 of the Tigers’ hits were for extra bases (7 homers, 5 doubles, 2 triples) while Tennessee had 9 extra base hits (1 homer, 8 doubles).
The Vols entered the series ranked No. 2 nationally and in the SEC with 97 home runs.
A week ago, LSU’s relief pitching carried the Tigers to a 2-1 series win over Alabama.
Against Tennessee, it was the starting pitching trio of sophomore Kade Anderson (Game 1), junior Anthony Eyanson (Game 2) and first-time starter freshman Casan Evans (Game 3) who delivered similar steady performances to combine for 19 innings and a 2.84 ERA.
Anderson went 7.1 innings, Eyanson 5.2 and Evans 6 innings . Each hurler allowed six hits and two runs (both earned).
Here’s a game-by-game series recap:
GAME 1: LSU 6, Tennessee 3 – At 1:17 on Saturday morning and LSU down to its last strike, Tigers’ first baseman Jared “Bear” Jones picked a fine time for his bat to come out of hibernation.
Mired in a 3 for 24 batting slump in his last two SEC series, Jones launched a three-run, two-out walk off homer in the bottom of the ninth when the Tigers scored all their runs off Tennessee reliever Nate Snead in a stunning comeback win in the opening game of their primetime league series.
It was the third time in LSU history that the Tigers won despite being held scoreless through eight innings and trailing by three or more runs.
The second largest crowd in Alex Box Stadium history, or what was left in the stands after a 3-hour, 25-minute weather delay postponed start of the game until 9:50 p.m. Friday night — let out a roar of disbelief as Jones’ 452-foot launch disappeared into the darkness deep over the centerfield wall.
“The winning run was on third, so a single would have done the job,” Jones said. “With two strikes, my main goal is hitting the ball hard and low through the middle of the infield. Just get a fastball in the zone and don’t miss it.”
Jones’ 14th homer of the season (just his third in SEC games) came after Tennessee’s first two pitchers, especially starter Liam Doyle, held the Tigers to no runs and three hits in the first eight innings when LSU left six runners on base in five of those innings.
But when the Vols left the door cracked in the Tigers’ final at-bats – Tennessee third baseman Dean Curley committed a throwing error and a fielding error to jumpstart the ninth-inning resurrection – the Tigers slipped through to victory lane.
GAME 2: Tennessee 9, LSU 3 – Six LSU runs in the ninth inning spelled doom for Tennessee in the Tigers’ miraculous series-opening win Friday night.
The Vols returned the favor Saturday night before a crowd of 11,439, the largest in Alex Box Stadium history.
Nursing a 3-2 lead, Tennessee posted a six-run eighth inning to salt away an eventual six-run win to even the series.
“You get back to the park and you have two options,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said of his team shaking off Friday’s loss. “You can either look forward, which is the way you’re supposed to go. Or you can look behind you, and that ain’t good.”
Tennessee starting pitcher Marcus Phillips was almost as untouchable as the Vols’ Game 1 starter Liam Doyle, who threw a one-hit shutout in 6.2 innings.
“I just trusted my guys behind me to make plays,” Phillips said. “You’re not going to come here and strike everybody out in this league.”
Also in 6.2 innings, Phillips gave up three hits and two runs. They were back-to-back solo homers by LSU shortstop Steven Milam and third baseman Michael Braswell III on consecutive pitches to lead off the bottom of the seventh and cut Tennessee’s lead to 3-2.
Two retired batters later, Phillips was pulled and reliever Dylan Loy got the Vols out of the inning with no further damage.
“For the last two days, I’m going to tip my hat to the dude on the mound,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said of Vols’ starting pitchers Doyle and Phillips. “Those are two pretty good performances. I felt like we were hanging on tonight.”
GAME 3: LSU 12, Tennessee 2 – LSU baseball’s “Take A Freshman To Work Day” was a smashing success on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Freshman pitcher Casan Evans allowed two runs in his first college start and freshman left fielder Derek Curiel went 4 for 4 with five RBI as the Tigers dominated Tennessee in an eight-inning run-rule rout in the series-deciding Game 3.
“When both of them committed (to LSU), those were good days,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said of Evans and Curiel. “It’s really hard to know what you’re getting. I knew we were getting something, but I can’t sit here and tell you I would have predicted they’d be dominant this fast. They’re program staples for the next couple of years.”
Evans settled in after a shaky 20-pitch first inning when the Vols took a 2-0 lead. Tennessee got no runs and just three more hits off Evans in his masterful 85-pitch, six-inning performance. He struck out six, had no walks, and gave up two extra-base knocks among Tennessee’s six hits.
“I needed to keep the ball down in the zone,” Evans said of his first-inning mistakes. “So when I went back out there, I was like `I’m going to throw everything down, that’s their weak spot. That was the main goal, and it went pretty well after that.”
But Tennessee eventually used eight pitchers – seven lasting fewer than two innings – in a futile effort to cool LSU’s suddenly hot bats.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com