By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
OMAHA, Neb. – Call it perspiration overcoming desperation.
Or a flair for the dramatic.
Or simply the ultimate gut check, reaching deep within to rise to the enormity of the moment.
Any way you slice it, the two-out Tigers are two wins away from an eighth national title.
No. 6 national seed LSU overcame deficits of 1-0, 3-2, and finally 5-3 in a 6-5 College World Series semifinal walkoff victory over No. 3 national seed Arkansas on Wednesday night to advance to Saturday’s championship series opener vs. Coastal Carolina
All of the Tigers’ runs, including three in the bottom of the ninth, came with two outs. Dating back to the fourth inning of its 9-5 win over UCLA on Tuesday, LSU (51-15) has scored 11 consecutive runs with two outs.
Both of LSU’s run-producing hits in its last at-bats – senior catcher Luis Hernandez’s game-tying two-run double followed by junior first baseman Jared Jones’ game-winning walkoff single, glanced off the head of Arkansas’ diving left fielder Charlas Davalan and off the top of leaping second baseman Cam Kozeal’s glove respectively.
“Probably two years ago to the day,” said LSU fourth-year head coach Jay Johnson, “the walk-off homer – Tommy (White) against Wake Forest (in a 11th inning 2-0 victory that sent the eventual national champions Tigers to the CWS finals) – I felt something in my body I’ve never felt before. Greatest moment in my life.
“It now has a tie for first, with the ninth inning Jared Jones’ line drive over the second baseman’s head. And Luis Hernandez, hustling around (from) second base.”
Jones, who began this CWS striking out five times in the Tigers’ 4-1 opening win over the Razorbacks, is 5 for 9 in his last two games with two homers and six RBI, including three with two outs.
“We’ve had a lot of these games throughout the season, whether we’ve had to fight back from being down or a team ties it up late, we’ve kind of stuck with it no matter what,” said Jones, whose 3 for 5 effort vs. the Higs included his game-tying eighth-inning solo homer on the first pitch offered by Arkansas’ ace reliever Gabe Gaeckle. “There’s no clock in baseball. There’s 27 outs. With our offense, it’s a tough ask to do.”
LSU never trailed by more than two runs against the best offensive team in the SEC, thanks to a superb hold-the-rope pitching effort by junior starter Zac Cowan and redshirt sophomore relievers Jaden Noot and Chase Shores, and junior Jacob Meyers.
Propelled by Wofford transfer Cowan’s clutch performance in his second straight start as a Tiger – he allowed one run and four hits in 5.1 while striking out six and walking none – LSU’s flinging foursome finished with 11 strikeouts and walked none.
“It means the world when I have the trust from the coaching staff like I do and the defense behind me,” said Cowan, an All-SEC first-team honoree who had given up seven hits and eight runs in a combined three innings in his last two outings. “And, yeah, like the last half of the season didn’t go as planned, but it’s going out there and competing every time I’m out there.”
Cowan and company had to be on point. Arkansas’ four hurlers – starter Landon Beidelschies and relievers Gaeckle, Cole Gibler and Aiden Jiminez – were almost equal to the task combining for 14 strikeouts and four walks.
“There’s so many plays throughout the game where you could get a hit here, make a pitch there, a play there,” said Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn, who came away again empty-handed on his eighth CWS trip with the Razorbacks. “The game changes. Then we got down to the end of the game, you know, they got the big hit. We got a couple of big hits. They got a couple big hits.”
A first-pitch solo homer off Cowan by Razorbacks’ catcher Ryder Helfrick provided Arkansas a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.
LSU jumped ahead 2-1 in the sixth when pinch-hitter sophomore Jake Brown stroked a two-out, two-RBI single. It scored designated hitter Ethan Frey (who led off the inning with a double) and shortstop Steven Milam (who was hit by the last of starter Beidelschies’ 78 pitches).
The Hogs regained the lead in the top of the eighth at 3-2 on a botched LSU double-play attempt to end the inning. Helfrick’s fielders’ choice RBI grounder to LSU third baseman Michael Braswell III scored Davalan. Braswell’s throw to LSU second baseman Daniel Dickinson forced out Hogs’ right fielder Logan Maxwell, who got on base after being hit by a Shores’ pitch.
Dickinson pivoted and fired a sinking throw to Jones at first, but Jones couldn’t successfully scoop the ball. It trickled away as SEC Player of the Year shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, who had singled, scored the go-ahead run from second base.
Jones promptly atoned for his error in the bottom of the eighth by hammering a solo homer to tie the game at 3-3.
Arkansas countered in the top of the ninth. First baseman Reese Robinett singled followed by third baseman Brent Iredale’s double, ending Shores’ two innings of relief.
Arkansas nine-hole hitter centerfielder Justin Thomas Jr. greeted new LSU reliever Meyers by punching his first pitch into left field for an RBI single and a 5-3 lead. Meyers then struck out Davalan and Aloy to end the threat.
LSU got a huge break before it got its swings in the bottom of the ninth. Van Horn pulled Gaeckle after he allowed just one run in 52 pitches over three innings and replaced him with Gibler.
Gibler struck out Tigers’ pinch-hitter freshman John Peason for the first out. Freshman left fielder Derek Curiel singled and kept running to second base after a throwing error by Robinett.
After Frey walked, Milam hit a potential game-ending double play grounder to shortstop Aloy. Instead of throwing to second base to start the double play, Aloy threw to third base to force out Curiel.
Now needing only one out, Gibler served a 1-0 pitch that Hernandez lined into left field where Davalan momentarily misjudged ball direction. He then spun his wheels and slipped as the ball dipped down, bounced off his head and caromed in the left field corner. Frey and Milam scored to tie the game.
Then, when Jones’ single was barely tipped by second baseman and Omaha native Kozeal as Hernandez roared home with the winning run, Arkansas fans felt a familiar pain from the past.
The Razorbacks needed just one out to secure a 3-2 victory over Oregon State to win the 2018 national championship.
A trio of Arkansas defenders allowed a potential game-ending foul ball pop-up to fall between them. OSU then singled in the tying run, and immediately followed with a walk-off two-run homer to force a winner-take-all Game 3 won 5-0 by the Beavers.
This time as Davalan was consoled by his teammates – “We wouldn’t be here today without him,” Helfrick said – LSU and a giddy Johnson were celebrating a CWS walk off win for the second time in the last three seasons that again moved the Tigers to the finals.
“I think about the walk-off wins we had at home (this season) against these guys, against Tennessee,” Johnson said. “And they (his team) just stay with it. The mental toughness is really like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com