OF LSU’s SIX HOME RUNS.
LSU RIGHT-HANDER PAUL SKENES DOMINATES WILDCATS’ LINEUP
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — The LSU Tigers sent a message pretty quickly, and they reinforced it over the course of nine innings.
Did they ever.
LSU’s Tre’ Morgan crushed a pitch from Kentucky right-hander Zach Lee for a two-out, solo home run to the opposite field in the first inning, and the Tigers followed his lead with some prodigious shots that flattened the Wildcats late Saturday night before an Alex Box Stadium crowd of 12,452.
LSU 14, Kentucky 0.
It was a long day at the ballpark, literally, for the Wildcats.
RESULTED IN A SEVEN-HOUR DELAY
FOR THE START OF THE GAME.
IS GREETED BY HIS TEAMMATES IN
THE TOP OF THE EIGHTH INNING.
Originally scheduled for a 2 p.m. start, on the second day of NCAA super regionals, the two teams were thrown into a holding pattern that twice repeated itself before LSU right-hander Paul Skenes could unleash his first pitch of the night.
Kentucky coach Nick Mingione took his team back to the Wildcats’ hotel, during the first delay, a three-hour time frame without any rain whatsoever.
Conditions were favorable for heavy thunderstorms, NCAA officials said, and LSU coach Jay Johnson answered plenty of questions about that possibility during press conferences Friday afternoon at Alex Box. An NCAA super regional between Southern Miss and Tennessee, about a 2.5-hour drive away in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was delayed and ultimately suspended Saturday evening, with the game to resume Sunday morning with USM holding a 4-0 lead in the fifth inning.
HIS 12th WIN AGAINST TWO DEFEATS.
When the 6-foot-7 Skenes took the mound for the Tigers at 9:06 p.m., intent on taking his team one step closer to the College World Series, you could sense the home team was ready to play.
The visitors? Not so much.
“We were going to have to live with it,” Mingoine said about the weather delays. “… (The NCAA) makes the calls. We played when we were supposed to play.”
Just not very well.
TO THE TEAM HOTEL DURING
THE FIRST DELAY ON SATURDAY.
“HURRY UP AND WAIT,” TOO …
LSU improved to 47-15 overall and will look for a two-game sweep in Sunday’s Game 2. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. The Wildcats (40-20) face a tall order against a tradition-rich LSU squad looking for its first trip to the CWS since the 2017 season.
(An eternity, truth be told, in these parts.)
Skenes, the former Air Force Academy star wo has played just a single season with the Tigers, took the mound and started dealing when the game finally started.
Skenes retired the first 10 UK batters he faced, eight of them on strikeouts, and settled into the dugout when the Tigahs brought out their potent bats.
It was nothing short of spectacular.
EIGHT OF THEM FOR EXTRA BASES.
TOOK CONTROL OF THE GAME.
Tre’ Morgan put LSU in front 1-0 with his first-inning home run, but the Tigers were just getting warmed up.
In the bottom of the third, LSU third baseman Tommy White ripped a pitch from the Wildcats’ Zach Lee for a two-run home run that sailed over the fence in left-center field.
Not to be outdone, Morgan added another solo home run, this one to right-center field, that put the Tigers in front 4-0. Morgan and White would cross home plate before crossing their arms in exaggerated fashion like a professional wrestler. Then, they’d join their celebrating teammates outside the LSU dugout.
The Wildcats saw plenty of that movie.
Let Tre’ Morgan explain.
“It’s called ‘hittin’ the tummy.’ You stand there, you lean back,” Morgan said. “It definitely fires us up.”
THE POSE AFTER HITTING A HOME RUN.
THE TEAM WITH 22 HOME RUNS.
The Tigahs hit a lot more than their tummies. They hit UK’s Zach Lee, and then reliever Christian Howe, and then Seth Logue, who worked the final two innings on the mound. Lee wasn’t pulled until the fifth inning, however, at which point LSU was cruising along with a 9-0 lead.
LSU has now hit 132 home runs in 62 games, the third highest total in program history. In 1997, before the NCAA mandated changes in the game’s aluminum bats, LSU collected 188 home runs while winning the fourth of five national championships under legendary coach Skip Bertman.
Second-year LSU coach Jay Johnson is well versed on the subject.
“This is the ‘gorilla ball’ program,” he said.
AND TIGERS FIRST BASEMAN TRE’ MORGAN.
With Skenes throwing up zeroes, one after another, the Tigers’ offense put on a spectacular display that brought the crowd to its feet, time and again.
LSU third baseman Tommy White, who bats second in the Tigers’ lineup, hit two home runs.
The first one, to left-center field, made it 4-0. The second one, a solo shot to left-center field on a pitch from UK’s Christian Howe, made it 12-0.
Kentucky, meanwhile, managed just four hits against Paul Skenes and LSU reliever Blake Money. Money trotted in from the LSU bullpen after Skenes struck out UK shortstop Grant Smith for the second out in the top of the eighth inning.
Skenes, whose fastball was clocked at speeds in excess of 100 mph, relied more on his breaking stuff to keep the Wildcats’ bats in check.
“Give LSU a lot of credit,” UK coach Nick Mingoine said. “They hit the ball really well. (Skenes) was up to 102 mph, but he threw more off-speed pitches tonight. Let that sink in …
“He made the adjustments. We didn’t … we don’t allow our guys to make excuses.”
LSU coach Jay Johnson said he’d never heard a louder crowd at Alex Box Stadium than when the Tigers took the field for the first inning against the Wildcats. Johnson said his team feeds off the energy from the crowd, and now that cold beer is served at college baseball games …
LSU’s Paul Skenes, who is expected to be among the top two or three selections in this month’s MLB free-agent amateur draft, understood what all the delays meant.
You might say Skenes is a ‘big-picture’ guy. He’s certainly a big guy, at 6-foot-7, and 235 pounds, and he’s put the Tigahs on the doorstep of the College World Series.
STRUCK OUT 9 UK BATTERS.
TO KEEP ITS SEASON ALIVE.
“Sitting there with the delays,” Skenes said, “all I was thinking was we’re going to get 11,000 people, I don’t know how many. .. 12,452 people were going to go home and drink beer and be louder.”
The Wildcats, who came out of the losers’ bracket to win their four-team NCAA regional in Lexington, will try to change the narrative on Sunday evening. But Nick Mingoine’s UK club beat the likes of Ball State, West Virginia and Indiana — twice, in the Hoosiers’ case — to get to the second super regional in school history.
Winning on the road, particularly at LSU, is another matter entirely.
“Last week does give us a sense of confidence,” UK first baseman Hunter Gillam said. “We’ll be locked in (Sunday), ready to play.”
Junior right-hander Ty Floyd (7-0, 4.34 ERA) will be the Tigers’ starting pitcher. UK’s Nick Mingoine is expected to counter with junior right-hander Austin Strickland (4-1, 4.44 ERA).
AND HIS FIRST BASEMAN, HUNTER GILLIAM
WITH THE RESOUNDING VICTORY.
THE FIRST 10 UK BATTERS HE FACED.
NOW A TV ANALYST, BACK IN THE 1980s ….
I COVERED LSU’s DOUG THOMPSON,
AN ALL-AMERICAN HIMSELF, FROM BILOXI.
I’LL BE HOME IN A FEW DAYS …