GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
What if LSU hosted an NCAA Regional, and nobody showed?
It happened.
The Tigers have hosted two games at their Alex Box Stadium home the last two nights, and none of their invited guests from Dallas Baptist nor Arkansas-Little Rock bothered to show up at LSU’s home … plate.
LSU shut out Dallas Baptist, 12-0, Saturday night at the Box after blanking Arkansas-Little Rock, 7-0, on Friday night. Not one base runner – not a Patriot nor a Trojan made it home.
The Tigers (45-14) can win the NCAA Regional title and advance to the best-of-three, two-team Super Regional next weekend at Alex Box with a win on Sunday at 8 p.m. Television for LSU’s Sunday night game had not been announced as of Sunday afternoon.
LSU pitching can also wrap up its third straight shutout. The Tigers will play the winner of Dallas Baptist (41-17) and Arkansas-Little Rock (25-33), which play an elimination game at 2 p.m. Sunday. Arkansas Little-Rock eliminated Rhode Island, 22-10, in the first game Saturday.
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Should LSU lose Sunday night, it will play the Regional title game on Monday at a time to be determined.
Sophomore left-hander Kade Anderson blew through Dallas Baptist from the outset, striking out 11 and allowing just four hits with two walks in seven innings to improve to 9-1. He leads the nation with 156 strikeouts. Anderson never allowed more than one hit in an inning, retired the side in order twice, and allowed only one runner as far as second base.
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Relievers DJ Primeaux, Jacob Mayers and William Schmidt finished the final two innings and kept the shutout. Anderson followed junior right-hander Anthony Eyanson, who shut out Arkansas-Little Rock on five hits through seven and two-thirds innings Friday with seven strikeouts. Primeaux and Mavrick Rizy wrapped up that game.
LSU delivered back-to-back shutouts in NCAA Regional play for the first time since 2015 when the Tigers beat North Carolina-Wilmington, 2-0, in each game to finish a sweep of that Regional. Starting pitchers Alex Lange and Jared Poche each threw six-hit, complete game shutouts for those two wins. That team went on to beat Louisiana-Lafayette in the Super Regional and reach the College World Series.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the first inning Saturday off former LSU pitcher Micah Bucknam, a seldom-used reliever last season who transferred to Dallas Baptist for this season. Bucknam got the first two outs, but walked Daniel Dickinson and hit Jake Brown before Ethan Frey drove in both with a double.
Chris Stanfield hit his first home run of the season in the second inning for a 3-0 lead. LSU took a 6-0 lead in the third. Stanfield’s RBI single chased Bucknam, and Derek Curiel’s RBI single greeted reliever James Ellwanger. Luis Hernandez drove in another run with a sacrifice bunt.
Stanfield added an RBI ground out to shortstop in the fifth for a 7-0 lead after Milam led off with a single.
The Tigers took a 9-0 lead in the sixth on an RBI single by Hernandez and a steal of home by Milam on a double steal with Hernandez taking second.
LSU scored three runs in the eighth for a 12-0 lead. Frey made it 10-0 when he tripled to lead off and scored on an error in center field. Ashton Larson’s sacrifice fly later made it 11-0. Cade Arrambide came off the bench to single and score on a wild pitch.
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