Blake Money looked over his shoulder with two outs in the top of the sixth. His second baserunner of LSU’s opening night game was taking a rather large lead off the first base bag. He had caught him leaning a few moments before, but the runner just ducked his head back in below Tre’ Morgan’s swift tag.
Money had been close to perfect through five innings. He had tallied nine strikeouts, and his only other baserunner got on via a winding grounder that Jordan Thompson just couldn’t come up with. He wanted this second runner. It was a matter of principle.
He turned and fired to first. The runner, with too big of a lead, was too far from the bag and Morgan easily tagged him out. Money stomped off the mound, let out a big roar, and with a reputation for talking the talk with his walk, stared down the runner dusting himself off as he marched towards the home dugout.
“I don’t know, it’s been a long time since I picked somebody off,” Money said. “I just felt electric.”
“I thought the pitch was a little close that he walked on,” he smirked. “I was a little irritated by the walk, but to pick him off was just as good as getting him out the first time for me.”
In seven innings, Money threw 10 strikeouts, a career-high, with just one walk on 79 pitches. In tremendously efficient fashion, Money sat down Black Bears one after another with paint-chipping fastballs, knee-breaking breaking balls, and focused command. With his velocity on his fastballs sitting around 94-95 mph, he was impossible to get a hold of.
The confidence that Money exudes was on full display both on the field and in his postgame interview. With each K, Money gave the fans a little strut, each step around the mound declaring that this was his field to dominate. He knew he was on his game tonight. The fiery reactions fed energy into the team and the more he sat batters down, the more the offense progressed as a result of his actions.
“His energy is awesome,” Brayden Jobert said. “We feed off that, and it takes us into a higher offensive mentality. It transfers over and it gives us some momentum.”
I think it’s great,” Head Coach Jay Johnson said of Money’s competitive spirit manifesting into his desire to pick the runner off. “It’s real too, and I think what I like about it is there’s a mature element of that where he can go from channeling that and get right back to the next pitch.”
As players came and went through the media’s conversations, ready to rest up and get ready for tomorrow, Money walks in a pair of jeans, his well-kept boots, and a new, cloth cowboy hat. With a similar confidence he displayed on the mound, Money strutted in again and let out a big “How’s everybody doing!” much to the dismay of his head coach, sitting in the corner of the room talking on LSU’s postgame radio show.
“I got it for my birthday,” Money explained about his treasured hat. “The old one, I grew out of it, so my mom sent it down here for my birthday. It’s a Stetson. Really nice, really cool.”
Money went on to detail how he cleans the hat with a sponge, careful to give his hat the best care he can offer. It was just another example of how the Friday night starter oozes confidence and joy for the things he has in his life.
And it’s rightfully earned to do so. Money underwent an off-season of change that was needed for him to get to this spot. He weighed near 280 pounds when he got to Baton Rouge as a freshman. With months of hard work and dedication, Money’s trip home where he went for runs to boost his cardiological fitness, skipped second helpings of food and showed his commitment to his goals with relentless workouts made the difference in his development. The entertaining sophomore, 40 pounds lighter, was finally able to see the fruits of his labor come to reality.
“I wouldn’t be able to cut corners day in and day out, and then look guys in the eye and say ‘I gave you everything I had,’” Money said. “That would just be a lie, and I’ve never really lied.”
With admirable selflessness, Money’s energy, competitiveness and work ethic are never used to boost his own individual status. Everything he did, he was doing to help his teammates achieve their success. To have a player like that at the head of your defense, facing down a singular individual with just an aluminum bat in his hands, with the unwavering backing of his fielding behind me, is a special team to root for.
And a nightmare to play against.
“I knew my plan was to come back and be in the best shape and in the best mound-presence wise for the guys in the locker room,” Money said. “I’m going to do everything I can to be the best when I get back so I can put these guys in a position to win everything.”