LSU rallies past USM to win regional
Published 9:32 am Monday, June 3, 2019
BATON ROUGE — Southern Miss already had LSU’s respect.
The Tigers just had a devil of a time making sure the Golden Eagles didn’t steal their super regional too.
“I’m so happy I don’t have to play them one more time,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said after the Tigers had to come from behind to win 6-4 Sunday night and claim a regional championship that had an added bonus.
“Southern Miss tested us and took us to the limit in both games that we played against them this weekend. We found a way to win both games which we have done in a lot of games this year. Our record in the close games is really outstanding.”
The Tigers unexpectedly will be back home this weekend for the super regionals after Florida State beat Georgia earlier to win the Athens regional.
A Georgia regional win would have sent the Tigers packing. But after they will host college baseball’s all-time winningest coach when Mike Martin brings Florida State to Alex Box Stadium as part of his final season.
“It’s huge,” said centerfielder Zach Watson, whose two-run single in the seventh inning finally gave LSU the lead for good. “We love playing at home. Everybody knows it. We’re going to bring the juice and we’re going to be ready to play.”
First the Tigers had to beat the Golden Eagles — or else play them again Monday, winner take all.
“In all honesty, I thought it would be a little easier today,” Mainieri admitted, noting that the Eagles had a long, emotional victory just to get to the rested Tigers Sunday night.
“But that was a grind.”
Southern Miss (40-21) simmered through a 3-hour, 48-minute game in 96-degree heat earlier Sunday before the Eagles scored seven runs in the final two innings to get a 12-11 walk-off victory over Arizona State.
Head coach Scott Berry said after that game that the Eagles were fresh out of pitching and in bad need of air conditioning.
Early on, it looked like it.
Berry decided on lefthander Josh Lewis, a desperation pick for the mound who was making just his second start of the season.
Lewis gave up a home run to Josh Smith on the very first pitch he threw and Smith added a two-run triple in the second for an early 3-0 LSU lead.
In between, Antoine Duplantis singled to become LSU’s all-time hit leader with 353, breaking Eddy Furness’ 21-year-old record.
“That sent chills down my spine,” Watson said.
But Lewis recovered to throw four zeros at the Tigers, wiggling out of a major jam in the sixth when the Tigers opened with back to back singles and, after a sacrifice, had second and third with one out. But Hal Hughes popped out and Brandt Broussard grounded out to end the threat.
LSU starter Eric Walker was perfect for the first three innings, but gave up a solo home run in the fourth and lost the strike zone in the fifth as the Eagles tied the score on Danny Lynch’s two-run single.
That chased Walker, but reliever Matt Beck didn’t fare much better in giving up the go-ahead single to Matthew Guidry for 4-3 USM lead.
But after eventually loading the bases with another walk, Beck had perhaps the game’s biggest pitch when he struck out Matt Wallner, who has 23 home runs, with the bases loaded on a 3-2 breaking ball to limit the damage.
“We had a chance to do more damage,” Berry said. “Had some opportunities, but LSU was just a little too much for us.”
Reliever Trent Vietmeier gave LSU two scorless innings before Devin Fontenot pitched the final two for his seventh save.
“The experience out there was breathtaking,” Vietmeier said. “I don’t remember too much. I went black out.”
But LSU still needed to score.
“I don’t think anybody in that dugout thought we were going to lose that game,” Smith said.
Watson said when Duplantis’ got his his record-breaking hit, “I got chills down my whole body.”
But Duplantis’ 354 hit might have been bigger when he led off the seventh. Daniel Cabrera followed with a single and took second on the throw trying to get Duplantis racing for third.
That finally chased Lewis and Watson slammed a two-run single off of Jarod Wright to give LSU a 5-4 lead.
Saul Garza then slammed a double that missed leaving the park by inches to score Watson.
