Backs against the wall is a familiar place for LSU baseball.

Dating back to the beginning of last year’s championship run, the Tigers have been in six elimination games where a loss would mean the end of their season.

They’ve won all six, including Sunday night’s 8-4 victory over North Carolina to force a winner-take-all matchup on Monday.

UNC, the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the host of the Chapel Hill regional, had the advantage as the only team remaining in the winners’ bracket.

LSU had to first win a matchup with Wofford and then beat UNC not once, but twice at home, where the Tar Heels had lost just twice in the regular season.

Now, though, everything is equal.

Whoever wins Monday’s 5 p.m. matchup will win the Chapel Hill regional and advance to – and likely host – the super regionals against West Virginia, who emerged undefeated from the Tucson regional.

The Tigers’ back-to-back wins on Sunday, with the first game’s end and the second game’s beginning separated by just three hours, have changed the outlook for LSU.

Now that LSU has reversed its fortunes and avenged an earlier loss to UNC, it’s proven it has a blueprint to winning Monday’s high stakes matchup.

Here’s what the Tigers took away from that 8-4 win.

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LSU’s pitching showed it can win by committee, but will it break?

After starting pitcher Thatcher Hurd exited the game in the sixth inning having allowed only two runs, the rest of the game was up to LSU’s bullpen, which has been inconsistent this season.

From that point on, the game was much more suspenseful than you’d expect from one in which LSU led by multiple runs starting just 15 pitches into the bottom of the first inning.

UNC had the bases loaded in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings but produced just three runs out of those chances.

LSU miraculously stood tall in those moments despite shuffling through its bullpen, with four different relievers making appearances.

That was a necessity of sorts, given that LSU needed to preserve the pitchers’ arms for Monday’s game, where LSU will again need a committee approach to win.

With top pitchers Luke Holman, Gage Jump, Griffin Herring and Hurd all having thrown more than 70 pitches in games earlier this week, LSU won’t have many of its best options available on Monday.

That’s also true for UNC, who’s played just one fewer game than LSU since Thursday, but it leaves the Tigers in a no less precarious situation.

After Sunday night’s game was characterized not by pitching dominance but by a bend-don’t-break approach, there’s reason to be uneasy.

LSU’s certainly capable of winning in that way, but time will tell if it can do it one more time against UNC.

The Tiger offense has serious momentum – and maybe an inherent advantage

LSU followed up its incredible 21-hit outing against Wofford, which represented its second-most hits in any game this season, with another hot start against UNC.

In the bottom of the first inning, Josh Pearson got the scoring started with a two-run home run to take an immediate lead.

As difficult as it was to win two games in a day, it’s worth considering that having the early game to warm up your bats and get into an offensive groove played into LSU’s hands in the matchup with UNC.

Johnson said that, in his experience, that’s certainly been an advantage for the losers’ bracket team.

Not only did that quick turnaround sustain the hot streaks of some LSU players, it also provided an opportunity for others to have a short memory.

Players like Hayden Travinski who have struggled recently, and especially in the matchup against Wofford’s left-handed pitchers, got right back at it against UNC.

Travinski came up with two hits in the game, including a home run to push the lead to 8-1.

LSU seems ripe with unheralded heroes

One thing in common with any team that makes a deep postseason run, championship or not, is that contributions come from all the way down from the team, including where you might least expect it.

Yes, big-time players make big-time plays, and a team needs its Paul Skeneses and Tommy Whites to step up in the playoffs.

However, when the going gets tough, unlikely heroes often have to change the course of games.

LSU seems like a team that is plenty capable of having any single player step up on any given day.

Take Steven Milam, the freshman second baseman who’s blasted four of his eight career home runs in the last 13 days and emerged as one of LSU’s premier players.

Or take Pearson, the junior outfielder and clean-up hitter who, despite his .245 batting average for the season, came up with two home runs and six RBI across Sunday’s two elimination games.

Hurd likewise stepped up against UNC, despite a tumultuous season that’s seen him struggle to gain a consistent starting job and put up a 6.55 ERA.

With several freshmen who’ve made their way as staples in the starting lineup – outfielders Jake Brown and Ashton Larson – LSU has been a team all year that’s benefitted from unexpected contributions.

The question now is, who’ll be next?

For LSU, it seems like it could be anyone, and that’s very encouraging.