Well, game one of the series certainly did not disappoint. I will be picking up some meds for my heart in preparation for the wild ride of Game 2.
Despite ace Louis Coleman surrendering five homers, despite committing their first error of the CWS on a wild pitch that allowed a run to score and despite being down to their last out and being down by two runs…Fightin’ Tiger baseball managed to grind out a 7-6 victory in 11 innings against the Longhorns.
LSU started the game with a bang as Ryan Schimpf homered in the top of the first inning, but Texas answered in the fourth by hitting three solo shots in the innings. Longhorn’s starter Chase Ruffin settled down and continued to baffle the Tigers bats until the 6th.
In the top half of that inning Blake Dean and Michah Gibbs singled to put runners at the corners with one out. Ruffin then made Mikie Matook his 10th strikeout victim and was then lifted from the game by Coach Augie Garrido.
In comes Austin Wood to face Jared Mitchell. The number one draft pick tripled to left center. Now it’s all even at 3. For a second it looked as if the momentum had swung back to LSU. Just for a second.
In the bottom half of the 6th Texas jumped back on top with a solo blast by Russell Moldenhauer. It was his second shot of the night. The Longhorns would then hit a single and a double to have runners on second and third. The usually reliable Louis Coleman airmailed a pitch to the backstop, which allowed the runner at third to score. He would rebound to strike out the batter to end the inning, but the damage was done and Texas was back on top 5-3.
In the 7th the two teams exchanged homers. DJ LeMahiue took a pitch to deep center field for LSU, and Connor Rowe led off the bottom half with a dinger for Texas to keep the Long horns lead at two runs. After giving up his fifth home-run of the game, Coach Paul Mainieri finally pulled Coleman. It was not the final start of his LSU career anyone had envisioned, but he would get a little help from his friends.
Down 6-4 in the ninth, the Tigers managed to get runners on first and second, but had two outs. LeMahiue dug into the batter’s box against reliever Brandon workman and lined a double down the left field line that plated two. The edge of your seat game was now tied at 6 and Mainieri would bring in his ice man, Matty Ott.
Ott hit the first batter he faced, but was lights out after that. He managed to get the next three batters out and this ball game was headed to extra innings.
LSU had a chance to take the lead in the top half of the 10th with the bases loaded and just one out, but Derek Helenihi and Tyler Hanover both struck out. Texas managed to get a runner on with a walk, but the threat was extinguished when Ott struck out the next batter to take the game into the 11th.
LeMahiue walked to start the inning, but then the next two Tigers recorded outs. Now with Gibbs at the plate, LeMahiue bolted for second and Longhorns catcher Cameron Rupp threw the ball into centerfield, which allowed DJ to advance to third. Gibbs would eventually walk and now it was up to Mahtook . The freshman from Lafayette battled back from a 0-2 count and drove a single up the middle into centerfield that scored LeMahiue.
LSU continues to show that the team just never quits. Amazingly, their last 6 runs came with two outs.
Ott finished off Texas by striking out the first two batters and then got a ground out to end the game…to take one step closer to bringing that national title back to Baton Rouge.
Texas’s Coach Garrido named Freshman Taylor Jungmann game 2’s starter, while Coach Mainieri said Austin Ross will take the hill for the Tigers.
Listen to LSU go for their 6th National Title on WWL, the home of the Tigers. Coverage begins at 5:45pm.
You can contact me at sgeller@entercom.com
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