TIGAHS HAVE THE MOMENTUM, BUT DEMON DEACONS REMAIN FORMIDABLE
This is the kind of matchup that can define careers. Or establish trends. Or even signal higher visibility for a sport that tends to get lost in the shuffle with a national audience.
College baseball NEEDS Thursday night’s Bracket Two semifinal matchup, an all-or-nothing affair, between No. 1 seed Wake Forest University and the tried-and-tested LSU Tigers, in hot pursuit of a seventh national championship in school history.
That’s assuming, of course, that both teams will have their ace pitchers available, which is widely expected. LSU (50-16 overall) created the matchup on Wednesday night, using Cade Beloso’s three-run home run in the bottom of the third inning and steady work from its bullpen to knock off the Demon Deacons, 5-2, before a packed house at Charles Schwab Field in downtown Omaha, Nebraska.
Waiting for the winner, as fate would have it, are the Florida Gators, LSU’s bitter SEC rival that has won all three of their College World Series outings. The Gators (53-15) will have a significant logistical advantage in the impending best-of-three championship series, starting on Saturday night, regardless of which team advances to the final phase of the NCAA Tournament.
LOOKING FOR THE SCHOOL’s
SEVENTH NATIONAL TITLE.
IN MONDAY’s 3-2 LOSS TO WAKE FOREST.
HAS BEEN IN OMAHA CALLING THE CWS FOR ESPN.
By the same token, it’s hard to argue with what LSU has done in coming out of the losers’ bracket to force Thursday night’s win-or-go-home showdown in Omaha, the home of the College World Series since 1950.
LSU dropped a 3-2 decision to Wake Forest on Monday night, and second-year Tigers coach Jay Johnson has his team poised to erase that setback with big bats, plenty of grit and a 6-foot-7, 250-pound right-hander named Paul Skenes, who is expected to be the Tigahs’ starter with everything on the line.
“It’s all coming together for this team,” said ESPN college baseball analyst Ben McDonald, who pitched at LSU for three seasons before becoming the first pick overall, going to the Baltimore Orioles, in MLB’s free agent/amateur draft in 1989.
Wake Forest (54-11) hasn’t lost back-to-back games all season, and the Demon Deacons and LSU have been at the top of the rankings since February. Wake Forest has an ace up its collective sleeve itself, in 6-foot-2 junior right-hander Rhett Lowder, who is unbeaten in 15 decisions while compiling an impressive 1.99 ERA.
Neither Wake Forest coach Tom Walter or LSU’s Jay Johnson confirmed their starting pitcher for Thursday night’s CWS Bracket Two showdown, but it’s widely expected to be a matchup of Lowder and LSU’s Skenes, an overpowering pitcher poised to become the SEC’s single-season strikeout king.
On his way to being one of the top three or four players chosen in next month’s MLB Draft.
TO FIVE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS.
WITH BEN McDONALD (RIGHT)
AND TIGERS CATCHER MIKE BIANCO,
NOW THE HEAD COACH AT OLE MISS.
“That’s the matchup I’m expecting we’ll see,” said former LSU coach Skip Bertman, who guided his team to five national championships, and 11 CWS berths, in an amazing 18-year career with the Tigers.
Bertman’s an imposing figure on the LSU campus, and there’s a statue of him, leaning over the dugout intently surveying the scene, outside Alex Box Stadium/Skip Bertman Field, which has been the Tigers’ home park since the 2009 season.
That was the one year the Tigahs could claim a national championship without Bertman in the dugout, and Paul Mainieri built a top-flight program in his 15 seasons on the job, before yielding to Jay Johnson after the 2021 campaign.
Mainieri seemed to hear more about the games he DIDN’T win, while in Baton Rouge, and he compiled an exceptional 641-283-3 record (.693) while leading the Tigers to Omaha five times before stepping down after the 2021 season.
Jay Johnson, 46, coached at Nevada (2014-15) and Arizona (2016-21) before succeeding Mainieri at LSU, and he’s quickly established himself in his second season in the Tigers’ dugout. He’s got a veteran team, with Paul Skenes and another player expected to go at the top of the MLB Draft in junior center fielder Dylan Crews.
Maybe even the No. 1 pick overall.
IS FLANKED BY LHP RILEY COOPER (LEFT)
AND TIGERS DH CADE BELOSO.
WAS THE No. 1 OVERALL PICK
OF THE ORIOLES IN 1989.
And with Skenes likely on the mound Thursday night, the Tigers should have a significant edge with so much on the line. Skenes is just two strikeouts shy of Ben McDonald’s SEC record, when he struck out 202 batters on his way to winning the Golden Spikes Award in 1989.
McDonald has been in Omaha for the last eight or nine days but on Thursday morning traveled to Bristol, Connecticut, to do some studio work for the championship series before he’ll return home to Louisiana. If there’s anyone who knows a thing or two about great expectations, it’s Ben McDonald, a polished broadcaster who splits his time between ESPN and the Baltimore Orioles’ TV network.
McDonald battled shoulder injuries toward the end of his MLB career, but he finished with a 78-70 record and a 3.91 ERA while pitching for the Orioles (1989-95) and Milwaukee Brewers (1996-97).
Ben McDonald and Paul Skenes have plenty in common, as far as their pitching styles, but he’s nothing short of amazed with the job Jay Johnson has done in his second season as the Tigers’ head coach.
AND HIS DAUGHTER, JORIE.
PAUL MAINIERI (2006-21) AND SKIP BERTMAN,
WHO WON FIVE CWS TITLES BETWEEN 1984 AND 2001.
“The man (Johnson) doesn’t stop,” McDonald said in a telephone interview. “I’ll drive by the park, at LSU, at 7 in the morning, and Jay will be there. He’s there at 7 just about every morning.
“I have to give Jay a lot of credit. When things started to go sideways, with this team, he understood how to handle it. He’s got a lot of veteran guys, fourth- and third-year players … and he’s doing it while working the (NCAA Transfer) portal, the upcoming MLB Draft, in addition to finding a new pitching coach.”
LSU pitching coach Wes Johnson — no relation to Jay Johnson, incidentally — is on his way to becoming the head coach at another SEC school, the University of Georgia.
“You think about all the things that Jay’s juggling right now, and it’s really impressive,” McDonald said.
LSU’s Paul Skenes has yet to pitch on four days rest this season, but he looks to be fine for Thursday night’s showdown with the Demon Deacons. Skenes’ statistics are otherworldly, to say the least.
Skenes has compiled a 12-2 record with an impressive 1.81 ERA in 18 outings this season. He’s stuck out 200 batters in just 118 2/3 innings pitched, and even more impressive, issued just 18 walks. The transfer from the Air Force Academy has become the Tigahs’ great equalizer, and they’ll be counting on his presence to get it done against Rhett Lowder and the potent Wake Forest lineup.
“LSU is just such a strong team, mentally,” Skip Bertman said in a telephone interview. “This could be the kind of game where one home run, just one, could be the difference.”
IS EXPECTED TO START THURSDAY’s GAME.
A PERENNIAL CONTENDER
IN 18 SEASONS AT LSU.
That was certainly the case Wednesday night, when LSU’s Cade Beloso drilled a three-run home run to right-center field, putting the Tigers in front, for good, in the bottom of the third inning.
“LSU’s bullpen has been one of the biggest stories of the tournament,” McDonald said. “(Junior left-hander Nate) Auckenhausen with the six innings of shutout ball against Tennessee, Griffin Herring coming in against Wake, out of the bullpen, and stabilizing things for the Tigers. (Junior LSU lefty) Riley Cooper’s done a great job.
“It might be a long time before we have a game like this, in the college game.”
IN AN NCAA SUPER REGIONAL.
SKIP BERTMAN’s LSU SQUADS
IN THE MID- TO LATE 1980s.
HER MEDICAL PROCEDURE AT
THE VET’s OFFICE ON MONDAY.