Kade Anderson Pitches Complete Game Shutout as LSU Beats Coastal 1-0

One more to geaux

At most baseball programs, legacies are cemented on random Fridays or Saturdays in April.

LSU is not most baseball programs. We don’t update Alex Box Stadium for College World Series appearances. You want to go on The Intimidator? You’d better be the last team standing, otherwise you run the risk of being forgotten by history.

Just as LSU teams are remembered for what they do in June, so too are the individuals, and Kade Anderson just cemented himself into LSU history. Anderson has the Tigers on the precipice of winning its eighth national championship after pitching a complete game shutout in LSU’s narrow 1-0 win over Coastal Carolina. Anderson joins Brett Laxson as the second LSU pitcher to throw a complete game shutout in Omaha.

Anderson wasn’t perfect. He walked five and hit Coastal Carolina catcher Caden Bodine twice, but the Chants had no answer for Anderson, going 0-7 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine runners on base in total.

“His next pitch will be for the Washington Nationals,” Jay Johnson said. “There’s nobody closer to the Major Leagues right now.”

Offense was, obviously, hard to come by on either side Saturday night. Coastal Carolina’s got the No. 2 ERA in the entire country, while Anderson’s the best pitcher. LSU pushed across its lone run in the first inning, and the circumstances looked awfully familiar to the end of the Arkansas game from Wednesday night.

With Derek Curiel on first and nobody out, Ethan Frey hit a chopper to shortstop. It would’ve been a tough play, but Coastal Carolina shortstop Ty Dooley didn’t try to get Curiel out at second, and instead settled for Frey at first. It wasn’t nearly as tailor made as Wehiwa Aloy’s miscue in the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s game, but the result was the same: LSU made its opponent pay for failing to get the double play, and Steven Milam drove Curiel home with a knock to center field.

I don’t get to say this very often, but one run ended up being more than enough thanks to Anderson and some flawless defense from the infield.

Michael Braswell’s having a rough go of things at the plate, but you wouldn’t know it with the way he’s been playing defense. Braswell played Gold Glove worth third base tonight, whether it’s him charging down the line to throw out a sac bunt in the seventh inning, or tagging out Sebastian Alexander on a stolen base attempt in the third.

Braswell also put a good swing on in his first at bat of Saturday’s game. It was a fly out to right, but it was the most solid contact he’s had in a while, and it feels like the breakthrough at the plate is coming. Be on the lookout for a critical hit tomorrow afternoon or (hopefully not!) Monday evening.

Coastal Carolina’s best chance at tying the game came in the fourth inning when Blagen Pado looped a leadoff double into shallow left field. Anderson responded with three straight Ks to get out of the jam.

Try as LSU might, the Tiger offense couldn’t get Anderson an insurance run or two. The Coastal Carolina combination (alliteration!) of Cameron Flukey and Dominick Carborne kept LSU in check to the tune of one run off of six hits and just two walks issued.

Milam hit a two-out double in the third inning and advanced to third off of a wild pitch, but Jake Brown struck out to strand the runner; in the sixth, Miam would once again reach third base after Luis Hernandez singled to put runners on the corners with two outs, but Flukey got Chris Stanfield to groundout to short for another wasted opportunity. The last real chance LSU had to score came in the eighth after Brown hit a one-out single, but two pitches later Jared Jones hit into an inning-ending double play.

But on this night, one run may as well have been 100 because LSU had Kade Anderson on the mound and Coastal Carolina didn’t. I wrote after Anderson’s complete game shutout against Oklahoma in early April that that effort was the game of his life, but this was his pièce de résistance, his magnum opus. He truly saved his best for last as the old adage goes and because of this legendary outing, LSU is now one win away from a national championship.

LSU will try to finish off Coastal Carolina tomorrow afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1:30 over on ABC. Coastal Carolina purposefully held its ace Jacob Morrison for this game and he’ll try to save the Chanticleers season against LSU’s other ace Anthony Eyanson.