BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
LSU began the college baseball season ranked No. 1 and finished 2023 with a national championship.
Perhaps Tigers’ baseballl coach Jay Johnson accurately portrayed the moment best on Monday night, after LSU won an NCAA baseball championship for the seventh time in school history.
“Right people, right place, right time, said Johnson as his LSU team (54-16) began the celebration at Charles Schwab Stadium, following an 18-4 victory over Florida in the final game of a best-of-three NCAA Men’s College World Series championship format in Omaha.
Johnson, in his second season as the LSU baseball coach, said that his players exhibited a winning mentality all year.
“You could feel it in that first meeting we had at the start of the season. There certainly were those expectations then of winning a championship, but we had had that expectations all year long and then we met them,” Johnson added.
The national title was the second in the last several months for LSU, which won a national women’s basketball title.
In order to win it all however, the Tigers had to fight through a series of postseason adversities.LSU exited the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament early, then had to fight back through the CWS losers’ bracket before eliminating
Tennessee and top-seeded Wake Forest.After defeating Florida (54-17) in the first game of the championship series 4-3 on an 11th-inning Cade Beloso solo home run, the Gators punched back, defeating the Tigers 24-4 on Sunday. In that game the Gators punched out 23 hits and scored a record number of CWS single-game runs.
LSU though flipped the Sunday script on Monday night, outhitting Florida 24-5, as three Tigers’ pitchers allowed just two walks. Paradoxically the Tigers left another 18 runners on base in the deciding game.
In the three championship series contests, LSU left 45 runners on base.The Tigers received six strong innings from Tonight night starter Thatcher Hurd. Relievers Riley Cooper and Gavin Guidry pitched the final three innings.
Florida bolted to a 2-0 lead on a Wyatt Langford home run in the bottom of the first inning, but LSU established a 6-2 advantage by the third inning. In the fourth the game began slipping away from the Gators, as LSU went up 10-2.
LSU centerfielder Dylan Crews, who was named the 2023 Golden Spikes Award winner, symbolizing the best amateur baseball player in America, said he was overcome as he contemplated the achievement.”This is really the best feeling in the world. It’s been a long journey for us,” said Crews, who is destined to become perhaps the top selection in the major league draft.
LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, who will probably also be among the top players drafted this year, didn’t pitch in the championship series. Skenes however was named the MVP of the entire World Series, after striking out 21 batters in 15 1/2 innings.
The title was the first for LSU since 2009. Paul Manieri, who was the LSU baseball coach that season, watched the game Monday night from a Schwab Stadium skybox. Florida defeated a Manieri-coached team in 2017 to win the CWS title.
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