By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
You could hear the sighs and an “Oh no,” when Ben McDonald asked Jake Brown about “the error,” while at center stage of the Tigers’ First Pitch Banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel ballroom in front of several hundred fans last month.
Ben didn’t really go there, did he? But he did.
Well, not only is McDonald a qualified reporter as the Baltimore Orioles analyst for radio and TV and for SEC Network and ESPN college baseball coverage, he knows the territory. Personally.
Thank you Joy….that was fun! @LSUbaseball fans showed up and out again….1st pitch banquet raised a program record 500k last night! https://t.co/j7tENu2mty
— Ben McDonald (@realbenmcdonald) January 16, 2026
McDonald was the G.O.A.T. at LSU as the Tigers’ first Golden Spikes winner as college baseball’s best player in 1989, and he was the No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball Draft that year by Baltimore. He went on to pitch in Major League Baseball from 1989 through 1997. He also knows something about being the goat in postseason college baseball.
McDonald gave up the biggest walk-off home run in College World Series history before Warren Morris’ two-run shot that beat Miami, 9-8, for LSU in the national championship game on June 8, 1996, in Omaha, Nebraska.
On Friday, June 5, 1987, McDonald – an LSU freshman from Denham Springs High – replaced pitcher Barry Manuel with two on and one out and the Tigers leading Stanford, 5-2, in the bottom of the 10th inning in Omaha.
The Tigers were two outs away from advancing their farthest in World Series history at the time – to the semifinal round. But McDonald hit Ed Sprague to load the bases. Then left-hander Paul Carey, batting .200 with one RBI in the series, hit a grand slam to send Stanford to the semis with a 6-5 win and end LSU’s season. Stanford went on to win the next two national championships.
“I wanted to ask you about that error you made in right field as an LSU freshman at North Carolina,” McDonald said at the banquet. “And, believe me, I know what’s that like. I gave up a walk-off grand slam in Omaha when I was a freshman, and it made me who I am today.”
Brown’s miscue also happened in the 10th inning. LSU and host North Carolina were tied 3-3 in the NCAA Regional final at Chapel Hill on June 3, 2024. An LSU win would send the defending national champions back home to host West Virginia in the Super Regional at Alex Box Stadium with another trip to Omaha on the line. And LSU has rarely lost in such scenarios.
LSU was an out away in the top of the 10th at North Carolina from having a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning. But Johnny Castagnozzi’s fly ball to right got away from Brown in right for an error, and Castagnozzi reached second. Then Alex Madera stroked an RBI single to give the Tar Heels a 4-3 lead. LSU went quietly in the bottom of the 10th, sending North Carolina to a home Super Regional against West Virginia, which it beat to reach the CWS.
“Yeah, I definitely learned how to handle adversity,” Brown told McDonald and the hushed crowd. “The main thing was getting back between the white lines as soon as possible.”
Brown did just that as he reported to the Cape Cod League and promptly hit .313 with no errors through 20 games that summer.
“Getting back between the lines was the main thing,” Brown said. “And there are lot of support staff at LSU that helped me a lot, too. I realized it’s a kid’s game to me – just with more people watching. That’s all it’s ever going to be.”
Amazingly, the same strategy worked nearly 40 years earlier for McDonald, who was scheduled to join the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in the Alaskan summer league just days after his World Series loss in 1987. Because LSU coach Skip Bertman made sure of that.
Ian….thanks for sharing….you rite sir….⚾️ coming fast! Going to be a good year in #Birdland I can’t wait! https://t.co/QejlEGiCsa
— Ben McDonald (@realbenmcdonald) January 17, 2026
“Skip had called the manager up there and told him to get me back on that mound as fast as they could,” McDonald said. “They picked me up at the airport and said I was pitching the next night. I threw a shutout and struck out 13 or 14, and I was off and running again. You’ve got to put it behind you as fast as you can.”
McDonald went 13-7 with a 2.65 ERA and a save in 1988 for LSU as a sophomore with 10 complete games. He also struck out 144 in 118 innings. Then he helped lead the United States Olympic team to the gold medal in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, by beating South Korea and Puerto Rico with Bertman as pitching coach. In 1989, McDonald went 14-4 with a 3.49 ERA and four saves with eight complete games and an SEC record 202 strikeouts in 152 innings. That strikeout record stood until LSU’s Paul Skenes broke it in 2023 in Omaha.
McDonald also returned to Omaha in 1989 and got the save in relief with two strikeouts to end the game for a 6-3 LSU win over Miami.
Brown kept getting on his way, too, with North Carolina in his rearview in the 2025 season as he finished fourth at LSU in hitting at .320 after .264 in 2024. He had eight home runs and nine doubles with 48
RBIs through 46 starts last season. Brown also led the national champion Tigers in hitting in Omaha at .385 with four RBIs.
The defending national champion and No. 1 Tigers open the 2026 season on Friday against Milwaukee at 2 p.m. in Alex Box Stadium on SEC Network+.
“Jake Brown is the leader of our team. He became that last season,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said.
“My goal is to lead this team on and off the field,” Brown said. “We’re going to be a great team again.”
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