Kade Anderson Dominates as LSU Beats Arkansas 4-1

Tigers to the winner’s bracket thanks to their ace shoving

Kade Anderson.

If there were only two words you needed to sum up LSU’s 4-1 win over Arkansas in its College World Series opening game, those two words would do the job. Anderson pitched seven dominant innings, limiting Arkansas to just three hits and one run and LSU is on to Monday night’s winner’s bracket game against UCLA.

LSU-Arkansas was billed as a heavyweight fight thanks in large part to Anderson going up against Zach Root. Instead, it ended up looking like Mike Tyson knocking out Marvis Frazier in 30 seconds as Root was pulled after just 38 pitches.

LSU small balled their way to three runs in the second inning, needing only one ball get out of the infield. Luis Hernandez drew a one-out walk, and Derek Curiel battled back from 0-2 to earn a free pass; Daniel Dickinson then laid a bunt single down to load the bases. That’s when Chris Stanfield came through with a run-scoring single to left field and get LSU on the board.

Watching that back were you hoping Curiel would’ve come around and scored? Me too! But luckily, Root plunked Michael Braswell to score Curiel and put LSU up 2-0. Josh Pearson—once again batting leadoff against the left-handed Root just as he did in the first West Virginia game—then hit into a fielder’s choice that could have ended the inning, but instead Pearson was able to beat the throw over to first and, most importantly, get a third run across.

That’s when Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn shocked the crowd at Charles Schwab Field and pulled Root for Gabe Gaeckle.

The mood proved to be a wise one as Gaeckle ended up matching Anderson’s dominance. Gaeckle ended up pitching six innings of relief and limited LSU to just three hits, a late eighth inning run, and 10 strikeouts including at one point five straight.

But while Gaeckle kept the LSU bats in neutral, Anderson wouldn’t let the Hogs climb back into the game. He was taken deep Reese Robinett in the sixth inning, but Anderson responded in a big way with two strikeouts and a ground out. Anderson rode that momentum into the seventh inning and went three-up, three-down.

Three runs wasn’t going to be enough for LSU, and the Tigers, thankfully, got to Gaeckle in the eighth inning. Steven Milam ended Gaeckle’s streak of five consecutive strikeouts with a double, and then Curiel, on an 0-2 count no less, brought Milam home with a single to right off the newly inserted Cole Gibler.

To his credit, Jay Johnson gave Anderson a chance to keep going and allowed Anderson to take the mound in the eighth inning. But between the pitch count climbing and going through Arkansas’s lineup a fourth time, Anderson got pulled after giving up a leadoff single to Charles Davalan. Johnson turned to Chase Shores and Shores had an ominous start to his outing, immediately throwing a wild pitch and letting Davalan advance to second. But Shores settled, struck out two, and got Justin Thomas Jr. to fly out to center to end the inning.

LSU had a chance in the ninth to tack on another insurance run or two, but whiffed. Pearson drew a two-out walk, and Jake Brown, pinch hitting for Ethan Frey, got hit by a pitch to put a second runner on, but Jared Jones struck out to end the chance. Jones had a brutal night, going 0-5 with five Ks, and LSU batters as a whole struck out 16 times.

Jay went all in to win this crucial first game and inserted Casan Evans to handle the ninth inning. Evans, like Shores, overcame what could have been a tough start to get those final three outs. Evans gave up a leadoff single to Davalan, but came back with a strikeout of the SEC Player of the Year Wehiwa Aloy, and got two ground ball outs to end the game. Evans ended up being credited with his seventh save of the season; he and Shores threw a combined 23 pitches to get LSU across the finish line.

This is a great first step for LSU on their run in Omaha, but there’s still plenty of work to be done. Up next, LSU will have to play #15 UCLA in the winner’s bracket game Monday evening (6:00 P.M., ESPN) and getting to 2-0 in this bracket is going to be paramount.

Luckily they’ll have Anthony Eyanson ready to go, and if he can offer up an outing like Kade Anderson’s, LSU could be in a really good spot by this time Monday night.