Ackenhausen steps up, extends LSU’s season with win over Tennessee
LSU coach Jay Johnson’s options to start on the mound in Tuesday night’s College World Series elimination game against Tennessee weren’t deep.
Ace Paul Skenes opened the CWS by pitching 7 2/3 innings and throwing 123 pitches Saturday. No. 2 starter Ty Floyd pitched Monday night, as did the most likely candidate when the Tigers arrived in Omaha to start game three, Thatcher Hurd.
Riley Cooper, who closed on Saturday, seemed the most likely candidate remaining, since he started the regional championship game two weeks ago, but Johnson instead turned to another lefty reliever – Nate Ackenhausen.
And all Ackenhausen did in his first start as a Tiger was throw six scoreless innings, scattering four hits and striking out seven, to keep LSU alive with a 5-0 victory over the Vols.
Nasty Nate. Preeeeeeesh. @NateAckenhausen | #ThePowerhouse pic.twitter.com/zBhIH6GUuE
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) June 21, 2023
Now LSU gets a rematch with Wake Forest Wednesday at 6 p.m., needing two wins over the top-seeded Demon Deacons to reach the CWS championship series against either Florida or TCU. If the Tigers win Wednesday, the teams would play again Thursday night.
If you live in New Orleans, you could have easily seen the last time Ackenhausen started a game before Tuesday night.
It was in the first game of the NJCAA South Central District Tournament at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium 13 months ago against Crowder College, when he faced off against another Tiger signee, Jacob Misiorowski. On that day, there were nearly as many scouts as paying customers, mainly to take a look at the two starting pitchers.
Misiorowski, who touched triple digits on the radar gun that Friday afternoon, never made it to campus, taking the bonus money as a second-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Ackenhausen pitched into the seventh inning that day.
In 15 relief appearances this season, his longest outing was 3 2/3 innings and 67 pitches in a sensational performance behind Hurd in the SEC Tournament last month against South Carolina.
Since then, he has pitched just once – 1 2/3 innings of relief in the regional against Oregon State – before turning in the performance of his career Tuesday night.
Ackenhausen (3-0), who got his first victory since March 5, threw 93 pitches, the last of which was a leadoff hit batter in the bottom of the seventh. Cooper took over, and even after allowing a walk and another batter to reach on an error to load the bases, got an inning-ending groundout.
Cooper got a double-play grounder to help get around a couple of hits in the eighth, then delivered a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.
“Great game, great night for our program,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “It starts and ends on the mound, winning baseball. And the two big left-handers here executed at a really, really high level.”
LSU got single runs in the first, sixth and eighth innings before finally getting the big hit in the top of the ninth on a two-run homer by Dylan Crews.
Drew Beam (9-5), who had allowed a combined two runs in 12 innings of Tennessee’s regional championship victory over Charlotte and the deciding game of the super regional over Southern Miss, fanned nine and gave up one earned run in 5 2/3 innings and taking the hard-luck loss.
Tuesday was a victory on two fronts for Johnson and the Tigers – not only producing more runs than Tennessee, but needing only two pitchers to do it. Everyone else got another day of rest?
Now, just as the question heading into Tuesday was how Johnson would manage his pitching staff on this night, the question will be the same on Wednesday. Perhaps Javen Coleman, who was likely Johnson’s next starter in both the regional and super regional, will get the call. Blake Money was in the bullpen Tuesday and has started a couple of times this year. But would Hurd, perhaps, be available after throwing 65 pitches on Monday?
And if the Tigers can find away to knock off the Demon Deacons to force a winner-take-all game, would Skenes then be available on four days rest to pitch?
The good news is, these questions are still being discussed instead of bags being packed.
Tennessee Volunteers (Tony Vitello, Drew Beam, AJ Russell) – Postgame Press Conference (PDF)
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Lenny Vangilder
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Lenny was involved in college athletics starting in the early 1980s, when he began working Tulane University sporting events while still attending Archbishop Rummel High School. He continued that relationship as a student at Loyola University, where he graduated in 1987. For the next 11 years, Vangilder worked in the sports information offices at Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) and Tulane;…
