SUNDAY’S GAME — LSU 12, West Virginia 5

LSU advances to the College World Series.

 

Next stop, Omaha.

Back where LSU always feels it belongs.

There was the obligatory three-hour rain delay, of course, most of it under sunny skies, but another late, late night in Alex Box Stadium ended with a 12-5 victory over West Virginia and the customary victory lap around Skip Bertman Field to high-five with fans.

It’s LSU’s favored path to the College World Series.

“There were so many key at-bats in that deal tonight,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “It would be a game that you would want to put on a tape and show future teams — like, this is how we play offensive baseball at LSU.”

Jake Brown and Steven Milam each had four RBIs as the Tigers scored double-digit runs in consecutive super regional games for the first time in their 17 appearances after beating the Mountaineers 16-9 on Saturday.

For a few antsy moments, it looked like they might need all of them Sunday.

But the Tigers answered a mid-inning WVU uprising with a 6-run seventh inning, capped by Brown’s 2-run homer, and coasted home to sweep the two games.

“I take a lot of pride in we play our best when it matters the most,” Johnson said. “It really shined tonight. I didn’t need to motivate them.

“Jake had a phenomenal game tonight. Absolute difference maker.”

The Tigers took advantage of three Mountaineer errors in the seventh inning and loaded the bases with no outs on an error, a walk and hit batter before Chris Stanfield’s 2-run single got it going.

“Huge hit by Chris Stanfield,” Johnson said. “Huge.”

Johnson said he actually thought about pinch-hitting for Stanfield, his No. 9 hitter.

“But I just had a good feeling, like he’s hit these kind of guys well. I felt like he was focused and he’s taking great at-bats for several games in a row.”

Derek Curiel later scored when Ethan Frey reached on a throwing error and Milam followed with an RBI double.

Brown followed with a 2-run, 471-foot blast to dead centerfield.

“Jake Brown, two-run homer,” Johnson said. “It was a great inning. Proud of our guys for just grinding out against a really good team.”

It will be LSU’s 20th trip to the CWS, where the Tigers will be looking to add to their seven national championships, most recently two years ago.

The Tigers, the No. 6 national seed, will face Arkansas, which swept its super regional against Tennessee, in their Omaha opener. The Tigers took two of three from the third-seeded  Razorbacks in Baton Rouge during the regular season.

“We wanted to punch our ticket to Omaha,” first baseman Jared Jones said, “and we wanted to get the bats going. And we did that. And the job’s not finished. We’ve got a lot more work ahead of us.”

The Tigers jumped all over WVU starter Jack Karsonas early and LSU’s Anthony Eyanson (11-2) was dominant the first time through the Mountaineers’ order.

LSU led 6-0 after three and was cruising. The Tigers got a run on Brown’s RBI ground out in the first inning and Milam had a 3-run double in the second, followed by back-to-back run-scoring singles by Brown and Jared Jones.

But while reliever Meyer shut the door on LSU for the next four innings, West Virginia got to Eyanson for three runs on pair of home runs in the fourth and added a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 6-4.

““Chase Meyer. He’s throwing 97 with a hammer breaking ball,” Johnson said of the WVU reliever. “Really talented. But I felt like we were extending his pitch count maybe longer than he had. And we were hitting the ball pretty hard, lined out several times, kind of had some tough luck.

“Guys didn’t get discouraged. And then I think when he finally kind of got tired … and I thought we took advantage of that with free bases.”

Eyanson was lifted after hitting a batter on a 1-2 pitch to open the sixth.

Freshman Cooper Williams came on and got three straight outs to end that inning and retired the first eight batters he faced before giving up a two-out solo home run in the eighth, followed by a walk.

Chase Shores got the game’s final four outs without allowing a baserunner.