It’s rare for a college baseball fan’s mind to be at ease.
Despite leaving multiple men on base in the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers entered the final inning with a six-run lead. At that point, most sports writers were finalizing their articles, and those looking to beat post-game traffic were passing the exits.
Up until the ninth, it had been a near-perfect game for multiple reasons.
Two impact players on both sides of the field, Tommy White and Tre’ Morgan, had been absent for LSU’s upset loss on Tuesday against Nicholls State, each nursing injuries that were minor but significant enough to keep them out, according to head coach Jay Johnson. Despite those absences being brief, as both returned for the series against Alabama, they were felt in the one-run loss.
“Tommy [White] has close to 70 RBIs,” Johnson said when discussing having them back. “That’s not quite two a game, but you know, a couple of RBIs might have come in handy on Tuesday.”
White leads the country in RBIs per game by a decent margin, coming into this game tied for fourth in overall RBIs with 66 despite playing the fourth least games of the top 50 players in the category.
And in his first at-bat versus the Tide, he added to that total.
Following a rough first inning, where Alabama pitcher Hagan Banks made quick work of the top of LSU’s order and retired the side, White stepped up to the plate and delivered a solo home run to right center, kicking off its scoring for the night.
While White struggled from there, LSU continued finding ways to score. It pulled off two three-run innings in the third and sixth, with all six runs being scored on two outs. Dylan Crews, who finished with four RBIs and a home run and contributed to both those innings, discussed the importance of being able to deliver in the clutch like that.
“Yeah, that’s been big for us. That’s going to take us to the next level for sure,” Crews said. “It’s something that we’ve practiced, for sure, since the fall.”
Offensively, LSU delivered in the clutch on multiple occasions, and the defense effectively backed it up until the final inning.
Skenes continued his dominant run, allowing just one run through the first six innings. He attributed nine strikeouts and 71 strikes on 109 pitches, a strike-rate of 65%. By the time freshman Griffin Herring came in to relieve him, LSU held a 7-1 lead and every ounce of momentum. And through his first 2.2 innings, he effectively backed Skenes up.
With two outs in the ninth inning, the lead remained the same, as each team managed a run in the seventh and eighth respectively. That one coveted out was all LSU needed to complete its impressive performance.
One out.
Four batters later, the Tigers had switched pitchers and were only leading by two. Though Herring had multiple chances to finish the game, Alabama kept finding a way to hit off him.
“I’m not even saying this happened, but sometimes with a young pitcher, whether it’s the end of the inning, the end of an outing, sometimes you start thinking ‘hey, I just need one more’ to get that result instead of getting out there and playing and executing,” Johnson said.
Bryce Collins immediately surrendered another run and three straight balls against the next batter, giving LSU fans their biggest scare of the night before pulling through and putting the game away by strikeout. Just like that, the one-last-hoorah turned nightmare-scenario was over, and the Tigers came out victorious.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done this: jogging out before I shook the other coach’s hand to high-five him,” Johnson said on Collins. “He falls down 3-0 to a guy that’s had 15 homers, and he just got himself right back in and it was good morning, good afternoon and good night.”
While LSU fans are happy to escape with this one, there are still reasons to be concerned about this team. Game two takes place tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. and should be an interesting one, as the Tigers continue to try to work out their flaws.
