In a home regional filled with offensive and defensive miscues, LSU closed out the final with relative ease, taking down in-state rival University of Louisiana-Lafayette 5-1 to advance to the NCAA Super Regional.
Senior pitcher Brent Bonvillain proved to be the crucial figure in Sunday’s win, pitching 5.1 innings and allowing only three hits and one unearned run.
Bonvillain has now won two championships in as many weeks, as he was the starting pitcher when LSU defeated then-No. 1 Vanderbilt to win the Southeastern Conference Tournament in May.
“I just went out there and tried to have fun,” Bonvillain said. “It was really exciting. It’s hard to put into words winning a NCAA Regional with LSU, a team that I’ve always dreamt of playing with and always looked up to play because I lived in Louisiana.”
The Houma-native was only expected to get the Tigers through three to four innings going into tonight, but coach Paul Mainieri said his performance warranted the extended start.
“If it weren’t for [Bonvillain] we would’ve had a tough time winning that game,” Mainieri said.
His performance was boosted by ULL’s aggressive approach at the plate. ULL lead-off hitter Dax Kjerstad saw only six pitches in four at-bats and swung at all of them.
“Any time a team is swinging that much it helps you out on the mound,” Bonvillain said. “Luckily for me the balls they did hit went right to my defense.”
LSU’s bullpen put in a dominant performance after struggling at times during the Regional. Junior reliever Nick Rumbelow came out in the sixth and fired 2.2 shut-out innings, while striking out four ULL batters.
Mainieri said Rumbelow was spotting his fastball in the right spots and had good depth on his signature curveball.
“I wanted to bring him in as [ULL’s Caleb Adams] was at the plate and he had already picked up two hits on the night,” Mainieri said. “It was a good time for a strikeout. [Pitching coach Alan Dunn] called four or five straight breaking balls, then we were able to get him out with the fastball.”
Senior closer Chris Cotton proved to be unhittable once again, as he closed the door in the ninth with a strikeout and two groundouts.
The LSU pitching staff was aided by another strong offensive performance. LSU scored five runs as senior Raph Rhymes and freshman Alex Bregman went a combined 6-for-9.
Rhymes extended the Tiger lead to 4-1 in the sixth with a classic Rhymes blooper single over the second baseman’s head, scoring two runs.
“That was time in the game I really needed to step up,” Rhymes said. “We had some guys on-base, and we were trying to make something happen — trying to get a good pitch to hit. I got a curveball and went the other way with it.”
Bregman — who was voted most outstanding player of the regional — hit a solo home run in the eighth to put the Tigers out of reach of ULL. Bregman picked three hits in the contest to give himself 102 hits on the season, which ties him for eighth all-time at LSU.
But he wasn’t content after the game.
“It’s an honor to have 100 hits in this great league,” Bregman said. “I didn’t really shoot for that — I shot for higher. So I’m not really satisfied with it.”
Bregman stressed the importance of the team performance over any individual accomplishments he might garner.
Six LSU players — Sophomore pitcher Aaron Nola, Bonvillain, junior catcher Ty Ross, senior first baseman Mason Katz, Bregman and Rhymes — were selected to the all-Regional team. Katz’s selection was unanimous.
LSU will face Oklahoma in the Super Regional next weekend. The Sooners have possibly the No. 1 pick in this week’s MLB draft in pitcher Jonathan Grey, leaving the door open for a potentially epic pitcher’s duel between Nola and Grey.
Despite the upcoming challenge, Mainieri was focused on LSU’s accomplishments this weekend.
“We’ve won three championships this year, but there was no dog-pile on the mound because we know that was only three-fifths of the job that needs to be done to get to Omaha,” Mainieri said. “We had three big wins, and the players know it takes five. We are going to have a great opponent come in next weekend, and it’s going to be a great atmosphere with that’s waiting at the end of the weekend.”
