Little Rock Forces a Game 7 With 10-4 Win Over LSU

For the first time ever, LSU loses to a 4-seed

Sunday was full of carnage across the college baseball world, and unfortunately LSU got caught up in it.

On a day where three national seeds (No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 2 Texas, and No. 7 Georgia) saw their seasons end at home, LSU is now on the brink of elimination after Little Rock beat the Tigers 10-4 late Sunday night at Alex Box Stadium. It’s the first time ever a 4-seed has beaten LSU in the NCAA Tournament since regional format began in 1999.

“Great job by Little Rock today, winning two games against two great teams and you got to tip your hat to them.” Jay Johnson said.

“I think the game kind of speaks for itself where it got away from us and we’ll leave it here tonight, turn our focus to tomorrow and find a way to play great.”

As we’ve seen so many times this season, pitching outside of Anthony Eyanson and Kade Anderson let LSU down, and Sunday was the biggest offense to date. As a staff, LSU walked a season-worst 11 batters, including five in the eighth inning. Of those 11 walks, seven came around to score.

Jaden Noot got the start for LSU and was only able to get the Tigers four outs before being lifted for Chase Shores. Noot’s been pretty solid for LSU lately, but that all went up in smoke Sunday: 1.1 innings, three hits, two earned runs, two strikeouts, two walks, and two wild pitches.

Working with a 3-0 lead, Noot got taken deep by Little Rock first basemen Angel Cano in the second inning to put the Trojans on the board. Noot then gave up a first pitch double to Sammy Harris and walked Reed Willbanks, and that’s when Jay Johnson went to Chase Shores.

Shores was great coming out the gate: he escaped the two-on, one-out jam he inherited with a pair of strikeouts, then induced a groundout to open up the third inning. But things fell apart for Shores immediately after, as he walked the next three batters to load the bases, then gave up a bases-clearing double to Cano that gave the Trojans a 5-3 lead.

Cooper Williams replaced Shores and he was the lone bright spot on an otherwise dreadful night by the LSU pitching staff. Williams did allow Little Rock to score a fourth run in the inning though it was charged to Shores, but from there he gave the LSU offense a chance to climb back into the game: 3.2 innings, three hits, four strikeouts and just one walk.

But while Williams held the rope, his offense wouldn’t pick up the slack. After putting up three in the first, LSU was only able to push across one more run in the fifth inning. Luis Hernadez was able to come home off a wild pitch.

LSU certainly had its chances to slug their way to a win, but the Tigers left 10 runners on base. In the second inning, LSU had runners at second and third with two outs, but Bear Jones popped out to end the threat. The Tigers had the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings but couldn’t do anything with those chances, either. But maybe the most damning thing came in that fifth inning where LSU scored its fourth run of the night.

Leading 6-4 and with a runner on second base, Little Rock intentionally walked Derek Curiel to get to Jones. Jones then promptly struck out on three pitches.

LSU still had a chance late in the game to tie or retake the lead, but a disaster of an eighth inning doomed the Tigers. Jacob Mayers came on for Williams in the seventh and he went three up, three down. Mayers couldn’t carry that momentum over into the eighth, however, as he walked four of the first five batters he faced. Mavrick Rizy came on and also had control issues: a walk, a hit, and threw a wild pitch that allowed Little Rock to score its ninth run of the night. When that eighth inning mercifully ended, Little Rock was able to score four runs off of just one hit.

And so LSU’s staring down elimination tonight at Alex Box Stadium. After looking like maybe the best team in the field Friday and Saturday, LSU’s at risk of its biggest humiliation in program history: losing to a four seed twice at home. Working in LSU’s favor is the fact they still have Zac Cowan and Casan Evans ready to go tonight, and they’ll have to be at their best.

Anything can happen in college baseball. We saw that this weekend. Wright State took out Vandy, the No. 1 overall seed, and No. 2 Texas got eliminated by UTSA. Now little ole Little Rock is coming into tonight’s winner-take-all game riding high knowing that all the pressure is on big, bad LSU. Surely the Tigers will take care of business…right?