By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – The tiniest Tiger swung the biggest bat Sunday night to send LSU to its 20th College World Series.
Sophomore shortstop Steve “Monster” Milam drove in four runs with two well-timed doubles as the No. 6 national seed Tigers roared to a 12-5 victory over West Virginia to win the Super Regional in a two-game sweep in Alex Box Stadium.
The 5-8, 182-pound Milam had a three-run double in LSU’s five-run second inning and added a one-run double in the Tigers’ six-run seventh inning. He went 3 for 7 with eight RBI, four runs, a homer, and two doubles in the pair of Super Regional wins.
“I didn’t help my team as much as I wanted to during the year,” Milam said. “I had to step up and take pressure off the other guys. I just love the big moments. It’s what I came here for, and that’s why you come to LSU.”
Fourth-year head coach Jay Johnson’s 47-15 Tigers will play Arkansas in their CWS opener next Saturday or Sunday. The Razorbacks (47-13), who lost two of three games to LSU in Baton Rouge on May 9-11, completed their home Super Regional sweep of defending national championship Tennessee with an 11-4 victory Sunday afternoon.
“Something I take a lot of pride in is trying to have our team play it’s best when it matters the most,” said Johnson, who’s making his fourth College World Series trip after leading LSU to the 2023 national title and finishing second in 2016 with Arizona and making a two-loss and out exit with the Wildcats in 2021. “One of the beauties about playing and coaching here is that every game really matters.
“We laid out a simple plan, and they executed it great. There were so many key at-bats in that deal tonight, it would be a game that you would want to put on a tape and show future teams, like, this is how we play offensive baseball at LSU.”
Sunday’s LSU win seemed like a duplicate in many ways of the Tigers’ 16-9 victory in Saturday’s opener.
Mountaineers pitching issued nine walks and hit three batters, LSU kept cashing the freebies with six hits for RBIs, and a pair of relievers doused WVU’s victory hopes after the Mountaineers roughed up LSU starter Anthony Eyanson.
Eyanson wasn’t at his usual, virtually unhittable best, giving up four runs and five hits while striking out three. But Tigers’ relievers freshman Cooper Williams and redshirt sophomore Chase Shores held WVU to one hit and one run in the final four innings.
LSU took a 6-0 lead over WVU in the first two innings. The Mountaineers cut that margin to 6-4 in the fifth inning and seemed on the verge of their nation-leading 27th comeback win when LSU’s six-run seventh inning buried the Mountaineers.
WVU starting pitcher Jack Kartsonas, who had walked 16 batters all season, walked four batters in the first two innings when 30 of his 67 pitches were balls.
After the Tigers plated one run in the top of the first, they exploded in the top of the second inning, scoring five runs with two out for a 6-0 lead. Milam rocketed a three-run double down the right field line after Kartsonas walked the bases full. Right fielder Jake Brown and first baseman Jared Jones followed with consecutive RBI singles.
WVU sophomore reliever Chase Meyer, who replaced physically spent starter Kartsonas after two innings, gave the Mountaineers a chance to rally.
He shut out the Tigers for four consecutive innings while his team chipped away at LSU’s lead.
Eyanson, who had a 1.17 ERA in his previous eight appearances, struck out the side in the WVU first inning.
But the Mountaineers’ hitters kept chopping wood, forcing Eyanson to throw a combined 48 pitches in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings when they touched him for four hits and four runs.
It included a solo homer by designated hitter Sammy White and a two-out, two-run homer by WVU first baseman Ben Lunsden, both in the fourth, and a White RBI single in the fifth.
Suddenly, it was 6-4 and West Virginia was on the verge of keeping its season alive.
It was LSU’s cue to stomp on the offensive accelerator, piecing together three hits, three errors, and two batters hit by pitches for six runs in the top of the seventh for a 12-4 lead.
“We just wanted to get pitches in the middle of the plate, and do damage on them,” Jones said. “Get the ball to the plate and don’t miss it.”
Meyer, who threw his season-high of 77 pitches, finally ran out of gas and was pulled after LSU loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh.
Reese Bassinger, WVU’s best reliever, replaced Meyer. After immediately being ripped for a two-run single by Tigers’ center fielder Chris Stanfield, Bassinger got two outs.
But after throwing errors by WVU catcher Logan Suave and shortstop Brodie Kresser allowed LSU left fielder Derek Curiel to score, Milam pumped an RBI double to the right field corner, followed by Brown’s towering two-run homer over the center field wall.
So far in six NCAA tourney games the last two weeks, Milam is batting .421 with 11 RBI, eight runs, nine walks, three doubles, and one homer.
“I’ve known Steven since he was in seventh grade, and he’s the best shortstop in America, and took another step — it wasn’t just a great college player this weekend, that’s what a Major League player looked like in the batter’s box,” Johnson said. ” And it was the reason that our offense played close to its capability. His playing to his full potential is the reason why we’ve gotten back to where we were about 34 games into this season.”
Brown’s blast capped a string of big hits for the Tigers in the sweep in which they outscored the Mountaineers a combined 28-14.
While LSU batted .294 (20 for 68) in the pair of wins, 10 of the hits produced 24 RBI. The Tigers not only hit .455 (10 for 22) with runners in scoring position, but they also scored 15 runs with the bases loaded on four hits (including two grand slams) and two walks.
And then there’s the stat West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins will ponder for most of his off-season after the Mountaineers finished 44-14, being swept in a road Super Regional for a second straight year.
LSU scored 15 runs in the two victories from 10 of 17 players who drew walks, three runs from five players hit by pitches, and two runs from players reaching base on three WVU errors.
Too many self-inflicted mistakes, and the Tigers took advantage of nearly every one of them.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com