Worth the wait

By: TONY MARKS
LSN Sports Editor

OMAHA, Neb. - Twenty-four hours after giving up 24 runs in a loss to Florida, the LSU Tigers responded with an 18-run outburst in the deciding game of the best-of-three finals of the College World Series. With the 18-4 win over Florida, LSU captured its seventh national title in baseball and first since 2009.
“I really believe this will go down as one of the best teams in college baseball history,” head coach Jay Johnson said. “So consistent in the regular season. I think the SEC Tournament is the only week of the year we had a losing record, if you think about that.
“Eleven wins in the (NCAA) postseason, six of them against SEC teams. And I really believe we played and beat every team, the best team that we could have played along the way throughout the entire tournament. So I love these guys. I’m so proud of them. And they are a very worthy champion.”
The lineup was littered with players who contributed to LSU’s cause on Monday night, but, as in World Series past, an unlikely hero stepped up when the lights shined the brightest.
Jordan Thompson, the starting shortstop, had only one hit at the College World Series going into Game 3 and committed multiple costly fielding miscues in LSU’s Game 2 loss to Florida. But, in Game 3, he provided three runs batted in on two hits while also scoring a run.
Also driving in three runs in the deciding game were Tommy White and Brayden Jobert.
Named most outstanding player was starting pitcher Paul Skenes, who won the Dick Howser Trophy, which is given to the best college baseball player in the country. Skenes, the Air Force Academy transfer, literally and figuratively put the team on his back during its CWS run.
Skenes, who passed former Tiger Ben McDonald for most strikeouts in an SEC season, got the start in the Tigers’ opening game against Tennessee and worked 7.2 innings. He held the Volunteers to two earned runs on five hits while walking one and striking out 12. Then, with his team again facing elimination against Wake Forest on Thursday night, he went eight innings on the mound and held the top-ranked Demon Deacons to two hits on the night while allowing no runs, walking one, and striking out nine.
That game remained scoreless until third baseman Tommy White, the transfer from North Carolina State, delivered a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning to send LSU to the best-of-three series against Florida.
Game One against the Gators ended much like the game before against Wake Forest as designated hitter Cade Beloso delivered with a solo-shot in the top of the 11th inning for a 4-3 Tiger win.
The wear and tear of playing five games in six days under the Omaha sky set in as the Tigers lost to the Gators 24-4 in Game Two after pulling ahead 3-1 in the first two innings.
Undaunted, Thatcher Hurd got the start for LSU in Game 3 and outpitched Florida’s Jac Caglianone, who only lasted 1.1 innings and coughed up six earned runs. Hurd, on the other hand, went six innings, gave up two hits and two earned runs, and struck out seven while walking two.
As for Dylan Crews, the second Tiger and first since McDonald to win the Golden Spikes Award, came up big in his final game in the purple and gold with four hits in his six trips to the plate and one RBI.
LSU’s World Series championship came 30 years after the team won its second title in 1993 as the Tigers defeated Wichita State 8-0 behind Brett Laxton.