LSU ends postseason as expected, gets blasted again by Oregon State

LSU did exactly what it was expected to do — finish second in the Corvallis Regional.

The Tigers were vastly overmatched by top-seed and third national seed Oregon State, falling 12-0 Sunday night as the Beavers won the regional in unbeaten fashion. They outscored the Tigers 26-1 in two lopsided victories.

Of the two programs which converged last year three times when LSU won the two games that mattered, one was similar to a year ago while the other was worlds apart from that team.

Oregon State was the top national seed a year ago when the Beavers won 13-1 over LSU. The Tigers battled back to beat the Beavers 3-1 and 6-1 to advance to the national final series against Florida with the Gators emerging victorious.

The Beavers lost a couple of key pitchers off of last year’s team but had nearly their entire lineup back intact this year. Add to that the presence of Luke Heimlich, who did not pitch in the College World Series a year ago and this Oregon State team is just as good as last year and a definite threat to win it all.

The 2018 LSU Tigers are a distant shadow of the 2017 Tigers.

From a pitcher counted on to contribute who pitched just two innings in Nick Storz to Eric Walker, who would have been the ace, LSU pitching was handcuffed.

Then, there were the position players.

Josh Smith played in just six games. He is one of LSU’s top two players. Add to that losing Zach Watson for a month and Brandt Broussard for a month and it was a nightmarish season. Nothing went right for Paul Maineiri’s squad.

That LSU got into the NCAA Tournament was an accomplishment.

This was a team without big power, without deep lineup depth, without good starting pitcher and without a dominant closer.

In many ways, it was an excellent job done by Maineiri to get his team this far. On the other hand, despite injuries, LSU must recruit better if it wants to return to Omaha in the near future.

In the game Sunday night, freshman Kevin Abel was tremendous, allowing just three hits over eight innings. The first was an infield roller by Brandt Broussard in the third inning, the second a solid pinch-hit single by Beau Jordan in the eighth inning before Zach Watson singled to left to leadoff the ninth inning. Abel struck out eight before Jake Mulholland came on to get the final three outs. Kyle Nobach was the hitting star with three hits and three RBI to pace a 14-hit attack for Oregon State.

In the bottom of the first, LSU starter and losing pitcher Devin Fontenot got ahead of Steven Kwan 0-2 but Kwan worked the count full and then blasted a fastball over the right field wall on the ninth pitch of the at-bat for his second home run of the season to give the Beavers a 1-0 lead.

After Trevor Larnach drew a walk, Adley Rutschman hit a friendly grounder toward first base, an easy ground ball. Unfortunately, the ball hit the bag and caromed away from Nick Coomes for a single. Michael Gretler added to the lead with a two-out, RBI single to right to make it 2-0. Nobach then walked to load the bases.

Fontenot then hit Jack Anderson with a pitch to plate another run and it was 3-0. Fontenot finally got out of the inning, using 46 pitchers and facing nine batters.

It got no better for Fontenot in the top of the second. Kwan reached on an error and Cadyn Greiner walked on four pitches, ending Fontenot’s day. Fontenot used a season-high 54 pitches to get three outs.

John Kodros took over. Nick Madrigal bunted perfectly and it went for a hit as Coomes could not field it. Even if he had, there was no play as the bases were loaded. Kodros then walked Larnach to plate a run to make it 4-0.

Nobach drove in a run on a fielder’s choice when he grounded to deep short. Hal Hughes made a nice play and made the smart, only play to make by throwing to third but Jake Slaughter did not get to the bag in time, costing LSU another run and it was 5-0 after two innings.

Austin Bain entered to pitch in the bottom of the third. He got the rude treatment as well as Grenier homered to left to make it 6-0.

Nobach added to the lead with a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth, narrowly missing a grand slam, and it was 8-0. Jack Anderson followed with an RBI single to make it 9-0, finishing Bain.

Clay Moffitt took over for the Tigers. Zak Taylor greeted him with an RBI single and it was 10-0.

Nobach drilled an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth to make it 11-0. Kwan completed the scoring with an RBI single to account for a dirty dozen for the Beavers.

If Abel pitches the way he pitched against LSU, Oregon State will have a real shot to win it all, though defending national champion and top national seed Florida has sensational pitching. Oregon State won back-to-back national championships in 2006-07. LSU last won a title in 2009.

LSU finished a rocky season at 39-27. Oregon State (47-10-1) advances to host Minnesota in the Super Regional Round. It is safe to say that the Beavers exacted the revenge they were seeking in huge fashion, making a statement in the process against the outclassed Tigers.

Still, the future is promising with freshmen in Daniel Cabrera, Hal Hughes, AJ Labas, Fontenot, Nick Webre and Ma’Khail Hilliard returning, along with sophomores in Smith, Walker, Zach Watson, Jake Slaughter, Nick Bush, Matthew Beck, Zach Hess and Todd Peterson. Juniors with the best chance of returning are Broussard, Bryce Jordan, Cam Sanders, Chris Reid and Caleb Gilbert while there is at least a shot that Antoine Duplantis will return.

The Tigers need a good recruiting class and they need to host a regional if they want to advance. History has made that very clear.