OMAHA, Nebraska – LSU weathered the storm to take a 4-3 lead over UCLA in the bottom of the first inning Monday night and added a run for a 5-3 advantage in the third inning.
And now the Tigers and Bruins will each try to weather an actual storm at the College World Series at Charles Schwab Field. Just after the third inning finished at 7:20 p.m., the game was delayed by approaching bad weather.
At 7:44 p.m., it started raining as fans took cover in the concourse and under the upper decks, and lightning soon followed. It is the 19th weather delay impacting an LSU baseball game home and away this season and only the second time after a game started. Schools tend to try not to start a game if they know rain is on the way, so that an in-game delay won’t force pitching changes.
Had he wanted to, Anthony Eyanson may be starting for UCLA against LSU tonight in Omaha. @LSUbaseball https://t.co/DOTfhzci6u
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 16, 2025
In this case, LSU starter Anthony Eyanson may be done after just three innings. Pitchers tend not to return to a game after a long delay because their arms can stiffen up. Eyanson (11-2, 2.74 ERA) allowed three runs on four hits in the first inning. He has one strikeout and no walks.
UCLA’s right-handed starter Landon Stump (6-1, 4.54 ERA) has already left the game. He was replaced by left-hander Chris Grothues in the third inning.
JARED JONES AND TIGERS NEED TO HIT AND NOT WHIFF
The Tigers scored four runs on four hits in the bottom of the first to take a 4-3 lead with Jared Jones launching a three-run home run for the lead. Ethan Frey and Steven Milam singled after one out. Then Jake Brown singled in a run, bring up Jones, who hit his 21st home run.
The Tigers took a 5-3 lead in the third just before the weather delay. Stump walked Frey and Milam to open the inning, bringing on Grothues, who struck out Brown and Jones back-to-back before Luis Hernandez stroked an RBI single.
LSU coach Jay Johnson may start freshman right-hander Casan Evans (4-1, 1.86 ERA, 7 saves) to open the UCLA fourth. The winner gets Wednesday off – or the day after the game is completed.
ARKANSAS STAYS ALIVE WITH A RARE NO-HITTER
The loser plays Arkansas (49-14) in a scheduled 6 p.m. game Tuesday after the Razorbacks eliminated Murray State, 3-0, in the afternoon game Monday on a no-hitter by Gage Wood (4-1). Wood threw the first no-hitter at the College World Series since Oklahoma State’s Jim Wixson beat North Carolina, 7-0, in 1960. The only other CWS no-hitter was thrown by Jim Ehrler of Texas in 1950 in a 7-0 win over Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Wood also broke the strikeout record in a nine-inning game with 19. Wood would’ve had a perfect game, but he hit Dominic Decker in the eighth.
LSU’s Ty Floyd and Arizona State’s Ed Bane each held the previous record of 17 strikeouts in a nine-inning CWS game – Floyd in LSU’s 4-3 win over Florida in the first game of the championship series in 2023 and Bane in a 1-0 win over Oklahoma in 1972.
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