Casan Evans Gets LSU Home as Tigers Beat UCLA 9-5

Get some rest, boys

They say the best things in life are worth waiting for and that philosophy played out between Monday night/Tuesday morning as LSU beat UCLA 9-5 to advance to the national semifinals.

Monday night’s game was, of course, suspended because of rain and lightning in Omaha, in the third inning. LSU had battled back from down 3-0 in the top of the first inning, to leading 4-3 after the first. In that first inning, UCLA hit one perfectly placed ground ball after another off of Anthony Eyanson, but LSU immediately answered back.

The Bruins might have dinked and dunked their way to three runs, but LSU’s Bear used pure power to take the lead right back. After Jake Brown drove Ethan Frey home to get LSU on the board, Jones hit a three-run home run to right centerfield to put LSU up 4-3.

Working with a lead, Eyanson bounced back and retired six of the next seven batters he faced. Eyanson was working at a pretty good pace, needing 44 pitches to get through three innings. Even better, LSU was able to give its co-ace an extra bit of run support when Luis Hernandez came through with an RBI single in the bottom of the third to up LSU’s lead to 5-3.

That’s when Mother Nature rudely interrupted things. The game was paused at around 7:20 Monday night and then the call to suspend the game came around 10:15. That put both LSU and UCLA in a precarious position because the loser of today’s game would have to play Arkansas Tuesday evening in an elimination game; and from LSU’s perspective, the delay really stung because it burned Anthony Eyanson from giving the Tigers a deeper outing.

With all that hanging around, and circumstances making Tuesday’s game even more important than it already was, Jay Johnson went all in, and went to his best arm available: Casan Evans.

Evans was phenomenal giving LSU 4.1 innings of scoreless work, though two runs were later charged to him after he exited the game. Evans struck out five and lived in the strike zone, throwing 46 of 68 pitches for strikes.

While Evans was throwing up zeros, LSU kept building upon its lead. The Tigers wasted no time getting the offense going after the game was resumed, scoring two runs in the home half of the fourth inning.

LSU took a page out of UCLA’s book to tack on its two fourth inning runs. The Tigers used a single from Derek Curiel, a walk by Ethan Frey, and another single by Steven Milam to go up 6-3, and Jake Brown followed with an RBI single of his own to make it a 7-3 game.

LSU had a chance to put the game away for good in the sixth inning, but missed the opportunity. Chris Stanfield singled to start off the inning, and Curiel followed with a hit by pitch to put two on with nobody out, buy Frey struck out, Milam flew out to center, and Brown grounded out to second to end the threat.

The Tigers, however, would get the insurance run it needed the next frame. Jared Jones drew a lead off walk and moved to second and third on groundouts by Luis Hernandez and Michael Braswell; then, Daniel Dickinson drove Bear home with a perfectly placed bloop single to shallow right field and give LSU an 8-3 lead.

That insurance run ended up being massive as Evans started to run out of gas in the top of the eighth inning. Evans got a first pitch foul out to start the inning, but then gave up a single and hit a batter, and that ended up being it for Evans. Jay Johnson handed the ball to fellow freshman Cooper Williams for a lefty-lefty matchup, but Williams walked AJ Salgado to load the bases. Back-to-back slow hit grounders allowed UCLA to plate two runs, and then Williams issued a second walk to once again load the bases. Leading 8-5 with the go-ahead run at the plate, Johnson went to the pen again and brought in Chase Shores for this high leverage moment; the result? Getting Phoenix Call to hit into a first pitch fielder’s choice to get out of the inning.

After starting off Omaha with a brutal 0-5 with five strikeout day against Arkansas, Jones redeemed himself in a big way Monday night/Tuesday morning. Not only did he hit the three-run shot to give LSU the lead on Monday, but Jones came through with a key RBI in the eighth inning to put LSU up 9-5 and take away some of UCLA’s momentum. Jones finished the game going 2-4 with 4 RBI and also drew a walk.

Shores ended things quickly in the ninth, getting three ground ball outs to ice the game. Shores got credited with his first save of the season and only needed 11 pitches to get LSU on the cusp of this weekend’s championship series.

At 2-0, LSU is in firm control of its side of the bracket. UCLA will play Arkansas tonight (6:00 P.M., ESPN) in an elimination game, and whoever wins that will have to beat LSU twice to advance to the weekend. LSU, meanwhile, will get to rest up for tomorrow night.

How Jay Johnson and Nate Yeskie want to handle tomorrow will be real interesting. Since the rain cut Eyanson’s outing short, I suppose he could give you something tomorrow, but I would imagine Johnson and Yeskie wouldn’t want to throw Eyanson unless absolutely necessary, like if LSU had to play a winner-take-all game on Thursday. Best case scenario is LSU wins tomorrow, never has to use Eyanson and has him as fully rested as possible for Saturday’s game two of the championship series. As it stands right now, I would think LSU decides to use some combination of Jaden Noot and/or Zac Cowan to give you some length, Williams to bridge, and hand the ball to Shores, who’s only thrown about two dozen pitches in two games, to get you home.

Whoever LSU ends up drawing tomorrow night, I just hope Jay and his guys get themselves a good night’s sleep tonight. They’ve earned that much.