GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Sometimes, everything just clicks.
It happened Sunday in Alex Box Stadium for the Tigers, who 10-run-ruled No. 5 and defending national champion Tennessee, 12-2, to win the series two games to one. But it started happening on Friday night when LSU scored six in the bottom of the ninth, including four after two outs, with a walk-off, three-run home run by Jared Jones for an incredible, 6-3, victory to open the series.
Tennessee helped LSU in the rally with two errors by third baseman Dean Curley to put two runners on with one out.
“I thought we played in what I would call our best character – loose, free, confident, aggressive with a good plan,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said after the Sunday win in which the Tigers outhit the Vols, 13-7, and out-pitched them, 2-8, as far as pitchers used. “I really like how we continued to add on as the game went along.”
After taking a 5-2 lead in the second, LSU scored one in the fourth, two in the fifth, one in the seventh and three in the eighth to end it.
“That was just a real complete game against some really good arms,” he said. “Just a good performance all the way around.”
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello noticed, and then some.
“We got beat in about every facet,” he said on the field after the game. “I even almost lost a finger there on the postgame handshake. But a lot of it is this crowd fuels them.”
LSU fans set the Alex Box Stadium actual crowd record on Saturday with 11.439 and with the paid crowd of 13,376. For the weekend, the paid total was also a record 38,142.
LSU (36-9, 14-7 Southeastern Conference) jumped from the lower part of the top 10 in some polls to No. 2 in three – Baseball America, USA Today and D1 Baseball – on Monday and into a second-place tie on Sunday in the SEC with Arkansas behind first place Texas (19-2).
The Tigers go into Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. home game against Southeastern Louisiana (33-11, 18-6 Southland Conference) after two wins in three games. That followed their worst stretch of the season, which was 3-5 and included a 10-run rule loss to Northwestern State last week (13-3 in only seven innings).
“We’ve been in a little bit of a slump the last couple of weeks,” LSU freshman left fielder Derek Curiel said after going 4-for-4 Sunday with a home run, two doubles and five RBIs. “We’re going to continue to pick that up. No better time than right now to do that. We hadn’t been playing to the best of our ability.”
Curiel went 5-for-12 for a .416 average with six RBIs in the Tennessee series and 7-for-15 for a .467 average in LSU’s four games last week in being named the SEC freshman of the week.
Previous seasons that have ended in Omaha, Nebraska, at the College World Series have had their hinge games, which is what the Sunday win could end up being.
– In 2023, LSU had lost back-to-back SEC series at Auburn and against Mississippi State in May before winning a huge series opener at Georgia, 8-5, in 12 innings and won that series the next day. The Tigers hosted the NCAA Regional and Super Regional and went 5-0 going into Omaha. And you know the rest of that story.
– In 2008, LSU under second-year coach Paul Mainieri had dipped to 23-16-1 overall and 6-11-1 in the SEC on April 20 after losing a series at home to Georgia. Two days later, the Tigers came back from a 4-3 deficit at Tulane with five runs in the last two innings for an 8-4 win. And LSU did not lose again until June 7 in NCAA Super Regional at home to UC-Irvine, which snapped the Tigers’ SEC record 23-game winning streak. LSU beat UC-Irvine in the next two and reached Omaha before winning it all the next year.
– In 2000, LSU lost its regular season finale, 14-0, to Alabama at home, and never lost again. The Tigers beat Georgia, 11-3, and Alabama, 18-12, to open the SEC Tournament and finished 13-0 through the SEC Tournament (4-0), NCAA Regional (3-0), Super Regional (2-0) and Omaha (4-0) to win coach Skip Bertman’s fifth and final national championship. Fittingly, that team held its 25-year reunion over the Tennessee weekend.
After Southeastern, LSU travels to unranked Texas A&M (24-19, 8-13 SEC), which just got swept by Texas, for a Friday-Sunday series. Then it’s No. 11 Arkansas (37-9, 14-7 SEC) at home before the final regular season series at struggling South Carolina (25-20, 5-16 SEC) in Mainieri’s first season.
After that collective sigh of relief following the Tennessee series victory, which LSU easily could have lost with better defense by Tennessee in the ninth Friday, the Tigers could really take off now.
“We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good spot,” Johnson said.
Now, LSU has to finish and take advantage of the click. If the Tigers win the series at A&M, takes two at home against Arkansas and sweep or win two at South Carolina, they will be 21-9 or 20-10 in the SEC with 45 or 44 wins going into the SEC Tournament.
“And so we need to keep executing wins as they come along,” Johnson said.
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