GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
OMAHA, Nebraska – All Friday and all Saturday, TV news in Omaha and nationally rightfully reported on the heat wave gripping the country and the College World Series.
But LSU pitcher Kade Anderson, who grew up amid the swampy, South Louisiana heat and humidity of Madisonville off Lake Ponchartrain, basically said, “No sweat.”
Then he boiled Coastal Carolina Saturday night, 1-0, in the opener of the College World Series best-of-three national championship series on a mere three hits after temperatures reached 100 in the afternoon with a heat index touching 110. He struck out 10 in a complete-game victory to go to 12-1 on 130 pitches with 86 strikes.
LSU picks a great time to win its first NCAA playoff game by 1-0 … to go up 1-0 in College World Series best-of-three title series.https://t.co/IWLFZXIiVN
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 22, 2025
The victory puts LSU (52-15) one win away from winning its second national championship in three years. Coastal Carolina (56-12) faces elimination in a 1:30 p.m. game Sunday on ABC. If Coastal can beat LSU right-hander Anthony Eyanson (11-2, 2.92 ERA, 2 saves) or a reliever, there will be a winner-take-all championship game at 6:30 p.m. Monday on ESPN.
Coastal will start its ace – right-hander Jacob Morrison (12-0, 2.08 ERA) – on Sunday after No. 2 pitcher Cameron Flukey (8-2) took the loss Saturday.
“Yeah, I think that’s the real benefit in playing in Louisiana,” Anderson said. “Growing up there, this was honestly not nearly as bad as it was in the Super Regional (in Baton Rouge two weeks ago). It wasn’t even comparable, honestly.”
Wow, Anderson with another strikeout.
Anderson did sweat at times, though, and he flirted with trouble throughout the game. He walked a season-high five batters and hit two batters. Two runners reached in the first inning as he threw 25 pitches and another reached in the second.
Proud coach 🥹#MCWS x @LSUbaseball pic.twitter.com/BRyc3pdasE
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 22, 2025
The first two reached in the third on a hit batsman and a single, and Coastal coach Kevin Schnall called a bunt for Blake Barthol. It was a good one, but Anderson fielded and threw the lead runner out at third. Then Anderson struck out Walker Mitchell looking, and the inning ended when catcher Luis Hernandez picked off Sebastian Alexander at third.
Anderson struck out the last batter he faced in the first, second, third, fourth and eighth.
“I just went down to say a little something to him after the third,” LSU coach Johnson said as Anderson had walked three batters, hit another one and had allowed a single at the time.
“I’ll settle in,” Anderson told him.
“And I was like, ‘Nobody knows that better than me,” Johnson said. “They do a great job of finding their way on base. And they did a few times tonight.”
But they never made it home.
LSU scored the only run it needed in the first inning when Derek Curiel walked, reached second on a ground out and scored on Steven Milam’s single. The Tigers totaled just six hits, but left seven runners on themselves.
The Tigers apparently started a rally in the seventh when Daniel Dickinson was hit by a pitch. But a review reversed the call, saying Dickinson intentionally let himself be hit, which is what replays showed. And he was ruled as a strikeout. But game officials apparently goofed, according to NCAA rules.
“The ball was clearly in the batter’s box,” Johnson said.
“A batter must attempt to avoid being hit by a pitch, unless the pitch is in the batter’s box,” NCAA rules state. “If the batter is hit by a pitch while inside the batter’s box and doesn’t try to avoid it, they are awarded first base.”
LSU may not have scored anyway, though, as it only got one other hit in the inning by Curiel as Michael Braswell III and Ethan Frey each got out. But none of this mattered anyway. Coastal wasn’t scoring on Anderson.
“We had the plan for what Coastal is all about,” Anderson said. “And just go execute and field your position. Simple as that.”
Anderson got excellent defensive play behind him as LSU committed no errors. Braswell in particular was stellar at third base as he fielded and threw four batters out with Dickinson getting three at second and shortstop Steven Milam one.
“He just pounded the strike zone,” Coastal Carolina’s Caden Bodine said. “Had competitive strikes with his cutter and fastball, and was really locating it.”
Anderson dominated for nine innings despite a tight strike zone by home plate umpire Brian deBrauwere.
“We were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position,” Schnall said. “We just weren’t able to get that big hit. Tip your hat to him. He’s a really good pitcher. There’s a reason he’s so successful. He has multiple pitches he can go to at any time. He made critical pitches when he needed to.”
Schnall also noticed the heat didn’t bother him. Like they say, it’s not the heat, nor the heat index, it’s the humidity, which only reached into the 60 percentage points on Saturday here. It was in the high 90s in Baton Rouge.
“Well again, let’s tip our hat to Anderson,” Schnall said. “He’s calm, cool, collected.”
You call this hot?
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