After surviving the Baton Rouge Regional, LSU baseball welcomed West Virginia for the Baton Rouge Super Regional. Needing two wins to punch a ticket to Omaha, LSU scored 16 runs to take down the Mountaineers in game one 16-9.
Kade Anderson got the start for LSU in Game 1. After both teams worked a scoreless first inning, West Virginia got on the board in the top of the second after a single caromed off Anderson’s arm on the mound. Kade would stay in the game and finish the inning as we headed to the bottom of the second with LSU trailing 1-0.
Both pitchers got in a rhythm, and the bats went quiet until the bottom of the fourth inning. After Luis Hernandez and Daniel Dickinson were hit by a pitch, Derek Curiel hit a three-run homer to give the Tigers their first lead of the ballgame at 3-1.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, LSU broke the game wide open as the Tigers scored seven runs. Stephen Milam hit a grand slam, Curiel hit an RBI single, and Chris Stanfield hit a two-RBI single to increase the Tigers’ lead to 10-1! When you give a pitcher like Anderson a 10-1 lead entering the sixth inning, you feel pretty good about your odds.
If you have not been keeping up with this West Virginia team, you would not know that they went 3-0 in the Clemson Regional, but they had to come from behind to win all of those games.
In the top of the sixth inning, West Virginia cut into the LSU lead as they plated four runs against Anderson to cut the lead to 10-5. Just like that, the Mountaineers were right back in the game. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Jared Jones led off the inning with a double, Milam walked, Hernandez reached on a fielder’s choice, and Dickinson got hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.
Curiel and Ashton Larson would walk to score two more runs to increase the lead to 12-5. Josh Pearson stepped into the batter’s box and he would hit ANOTHER grand slam to make it 16-5 Tigers!
In the top of the seventh inning, West Virginia hit a two-run homer with two outs to cut the lead to 16-7. Anderson’s day was finished after seven innings of work. He gave up seven runs on nine hits, seven strikeouts, and two walks. The seven runs he gave up today were the most runs he has given up in a single game all season. DJ Primeaux entered to pitch for the Tigers.
After getting one out, Primeaux was pulled from the game, and William Schmidt entered. Schmidt gave up a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to cut the lead to 16-9. Mavrick Rizy then entered to pitch. Rizy got the final three outs, and LSU won game one!
With the win, LSU is now one win away from advancing to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Game Two will be played Sunday at 6 PM.