The Tigers had to wait for it, but LSU gave the fans at Alex Box Stadium what they came to see: a ticket punched to Omaha.
LSU defeated West Virginia late on Sunday, 12-5, following a 2-hour, 57-minute weather delay. The Tigers clinched their 20th College World Series appearance with the victory, as it took the Baton Rouge Super Regional over the Mountaineers, 2-0.
Derek Curiel got the party started early and continued his hot hitting from game one. The freshman, back in the leadoff spot and with the Tigers as the “road” team, doubled in the opening at-bat of the game. Curiel would later score on a fielder’s choice to give the Tigers a lead that they would not give back.
The offense would continue in the second for the Tigers, putting five runs up in the inning. The big blow came from Steven Milam, who came through with the bases loaded, hitting a bases-clearing double.
“It’s a dream come true,” Milam said about advancing to the CWS. “Coming from Las Cruces in New Mexico, you couldn’t imagine it.”
Jake Brown then roped a single to score Milam, bringing the lead to five. The downpour continued when Jared Jones hit a high pop-up on the infield that West Virginia second baseman Gavin Kelly failed to catch. The play scored Milam and was the last of the LSU runs in the inning. The Tigers left the second with a 6-0 lead.
Anthony Eyanson threw five innings in a winning effort. The righty threw his three best innings of the night to open the game, allowing just one hit and two walks while fanning five Mountaineers in the ballgame’s opening third, almost entirely on breaking balls in the dirt.
“I throw a curveball, slider and a splitter,” Eyanson said about his pitch selection. “And when I throw them down in the zone and they swing and miss I get happy.”
Eyanson’s efficiency, a relentless approach from the LSU offense, and the muggy and loud environment at the Box led to West Virginia starter Jack Kartsonas getting pulled after just two innings of work. The Mountaineers turned to Chase Meyer, one of two shutdown West Virginia relievers, to try and right the ship.
Meyer did just that initially out of the bullpen. He would end up pitching four full innings of two-hit, no-run baseball while West Virginia rattled four runs off of Eyanson in the middle innings to make the game 6-4.
Eyanson would get pulled in the sixth after hitting the first batter of the inning, which also brought the tying run to the plate. Jay Johnson turned to freshman left-hander Cooper Williams out of the bullpen. Williams delivered, getting out of the jam en route to retiring the first eight Mountaineers he faced.
“It’s everything you dream of when you decide to come to LSU,” Williams said about his role in getting the Tigers to Omaha. “To be trusted to [be] put in moments like that, it means the world to me.”
LSU’s offense responded to Williams’ brilliance in the next half inning. Meyer lost sharpness and allowed the first three Tigers to reach in the eighth. West Virginia then turned to its other high-leverage reliever, Reese Bassinger, in hopes that he could replicate Meyer’s early dominance and hold the Tiger lead to two.
The dam would break, however, as Chris Stanfield singled to score two of those runners to make the game 8-4 in favor of the Tigers. Later on in the inning Milam and Brown would both drive in their fourth RBIs of the night, hitting an RBI single and two-run home run, respectively. The eighth inning explosion moved the score to 12-4.
Brown would finish 2-4 with 4 RBI. He was pinch-hit in the ninth to allow the man he shared right field with, senior and LSU fan-favorite Josh Pearson, one final at-bat in the Box.
“He’s probably the best teammate I’ve ever played with,” Brown said about his relationship with Pearson. “I really love him to death.”
Jace Rinehart would hit a solo home run in the eighth for West Virginia followed by a walk to Chase Swain, ending Williams’ night. Chase Shores entered for LSU and retired the next batter to end the inning before retiring the side in order in the ninth to send LSU back to Omaha for the second time in three years.
“Very thankful,” Jay Johnson said about the victory. “[I] Don’t take these nights for granted. I’ll be the first coach to acknowledge they don’t happen without special human beings, and that’s what we’ve got right here.”
LSU heads to the CWS for the 20th time in program history. LSU is one of five nationally-seeded teams in the Omaha Eight. They will play the only other SEC side in this year’s CWS, Arkansas, as their opening game on either Friday or Saturday. The full schedule of game times and dates will to be announced on Monday.
