OMAHA, Neb. — It turns out the star of LSU’s 6-1 victory over Oregon State Saturday has some Lake Charles roots.

Former Barbe star Beau Jordan had the key two-out double that set up Michael Papierski’s three-run homer to set the game’s tone, then added a solo home run in the sixth that put the game away.

But starting pitcher Caleb Gilbert is no stranger to the Lake Area either.

He grew up in Hoover, Ala., and never lived in Lake Charles. But his mother, the former Linda Sherwood, grew up in Lake Charles and was part of the last graduating class of Lake Charles High in 1982.

Gilbert said he got to Lake Charles about once or twice a year as a youngster, less frequently as he grew older.

They’d visit his grandmother, Ellie Lemoine, who he said lived somewhere  “out there off of Ryan Street.”

“I remember playing in that big park out there by College Oaks,”  he said.

Linda and Beau’s father Paul met while attending LSU. Linda said she gets back to Lake Charles much more than her son.

Paul and Linda were, of course, here Saturday as their son pitched the game of his life to hold the No. 1 team in the country to two hits over 7.1 innings.

“Kind of unbelievable to watch that,” Linda Gilbert said. “I kept talking to myself, one more inning, one more inning. I knew he could do it. Gosh, it was exciting.”

CHANGEUP: Oregon State threw LSU a curve ball even before Saturday’s game started. After announcing Friday that Drew Rasmussen would be his starting pitcher, head coach Pat Casey changed his mind and went with Bryce Fehmel, the same pitcher who baffled the Tigers in Monday night’s 13-1 shellacking. 

Writers from Oregon in the press box were predicting the move even before the starting lineups were released.

It didn’t work, however. This time Fehmel lasted only 2.1 innings while giving up four runs on four hits, including Michael Papierski’s 3-run homer in the second.

“It shocked me,” said head coach Paul Mainieiri, who said he learned just 45 minutes before game time of the change.

“We took it as a not really cool thing to do. If they felt that was something they had to do to trick us, it just made us even more determined.”

Mainieri was mystified at how Fehmel bottled up the Tigers in the first meeting, and actually welcomed getting another shot.

“We felt like we could get to him.”

ONE THIRD: Not surprisingly for a team that came into the CWS 54-4, Oregon State had not had consecutive lost games all season before LSU beat them Friday and Saturday.

But, with the Beavers finishing their season 56-6,  it’s doubtful that LSU has ever been responsible for one-third of a team’s season losses.

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Mainieri said. “Look, they had a great team and a great season and I hope their coach (Pat Casey) is telling them that. It’s baseball.”

It also kept a long-standing streak going. Since the super regional format began in 1999, the No. 1 national seed has not won the national championship since that first year when Miami did it.

It was LSU’s 20th win in their last 21 games.

POWER SURGE: In two previous trips to TD Ameritrade Park, LSU hit a grand total of two home runs in five games.

The Tigers now have seven this trip, including two by Michael Papierski and one by Beau Jordan on Saturday.

HE’S BACK: Despite hitting a lot of balls hard — right at people — LSU leadoff hitter Kramer Robertson entered Saturday’s game 1-18 in the CWS. Saturday he went 3-for-3 with a walk.

RISING UP: Until LSU and TCU forced Saturday’s games with wins Friday, the higher seed had prevailed in the previous 10 games. 

WHIFFED: Alex Lange and Zach Hess combined for 12 strike outs in Friday’s win over Oregon State, giving LSU pitching 28 games in which the staff recorded double-digit strike outs.

It also gave Lange, who is now just three behind Scott Schultz’s LSU career record of 409, a total of 150 strike outs for the season, the most in NCAA Division I baseball (Florida’s Alex Faedo was four behind him and scheduled to start Saturday night’s game).

Lange has had at least eight strike outs in all three of his CWS starts (one in 2015), one of only two pitchers in the last 30 years with three of them.

KICK AND CATCH: Oregon State catcher Adley Rutscham came into the game 4-for-4 throwing out LSU base runners. He’s also a placekicker on the Beavers’ football team.