On Saturday night at Charles Schwab Field, the No. 6 Fighting Tigers from LSU battled it out against No. 3 Arkansas in a 4-1 victory.
The big storyline going into this game was the big matchup between the two pitchers. Zach Root vs. Kade Anderson. Ace against Ace.
Credit to LSU, they were able to get to Root immediately, which put a lot of pressure on the Hogs. Root threw 1.2 innings, gave up three earned runs, walked two batters and gave up two hits on only 38 pitches.
Even though the Tigers struck out 16 different times on Saturday, Derek Curiel was key in providing solid at bats throughout the game giving the Tigers life at the plate.
In Curiel’s first at bat he fell in an 0-2 count and fought all the way back for a walk moving runners in scoring position for the first time in the game which eventually resulted in three runs for LSU.
“I’m not surprised, he was born to hit,” LSU head coach Jay Joshnon said when asked about the importance of at-bats that Curiel was a part of Saturday night. “His disposition, his demeanor is made for hitting with runners on base and made for playing games in the college world series.”.
After Root was taken out of the ball game, reliever Gabe Gaeckle was lights out for the Razorbacks keeping them in the game until the end.
Gaeckle threw six innings and recorded 10 strikeouts while only giving up three hits in his outing.
The problem for Arkansas though was LSU had their Ace out tonight as well and unlike Root he was dominant.
Kade threw seven full innings and recorded seven strikeouts on three hits and two walks from the No. 7 MLB Draft Prospect.
Anderson gave up a home run in the bottom of the sixth inning which looked like his only mistake through seven innings of baseball.
The clutch at bats from Steven Milam, Derek Curiel, Luis Hernandez and Chris Stanfield during a game where the bats were struggling was huge for the purple and gold.
After a tough outing in his last time out against West Virginia, Kade Anderson was visibly upset with his performance. Although one bad outing doesn’t ruin the sophomore from Mandeville, Louisiana’s confidence.
“I think it’s part of the game,” Kade Anderson said when asked about his struggles in his last game against West Virginia and how he was able to come back and dominate game one of the CWS tournament for LSU. “You don’t take those outings for granted and to have that experience to be able to learn from that outing was huge.”
The Tigers now wait to play until Monday at 6 p.m. CT as they will take on also 1-0 UCLA. This game will be streamed live on ESPN.
LSU fans can expect Anthony Eyanson to start Monday to hopefully give LSU a 2-0 start in Omaha.
