LSU opens Super Regional with 14-0 drubbing of Kentucky

BOX SCORE

It was a long day and night at Alex Box Stadium.

For patient and impatient fans and players Saturday, the wait was worth it.

For players on other teams nationwide, it was a snapshot of what playing baseball at LSU is all about, with the best fan support in the country.

In fact, during his in-game interview on ESPN, Tigers coach Jay Johnson summed it up.

“I hope every good player in the transfer portal is watching because it doesn’t exist anywhere else,” Johnson said.

LSU (47-15) parlayed a frenzied crowd which stuck around, along with the brilliant pitching of Paul Skenes, long balls and big two-out hits into a 14-0 demolition of SEC rival Kentucky (40-20) in game one of the Super Regional best-of-three series.

Paul Skenes' Ridiculous Stuff.

If you ever wondered what an MLB ace would look like pitching against college kids…well…this is pretty much it. pic.twitter.com/W03QoXLfzo

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 11, 2023

The Tigers mashed six home runs, a season high, with former Brother Martin star Tre’ Morgan led the charge, belting a pair of home runs, the second time this season he has hit two homers in a game. Morgan added an RBI single. He would single again in the sixth inning. Tommy White also homered twice and singled.

TANK'D@tommywhite44 | ESPNews pic.twitter.com/DwAF1bOJPe

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) June 11, 2023

Questionable decision making about when to start the game remains but the aftermath of a long day left partisans pleased.

Morgan ripped a two-out, opposite field home run off Kentucky starter Zack Lee in the bottom of the first to give LSU a 1-0 lead.

The lead grew to 3-0 in the bottom of the third. Once again, with two outs and no one aboard, Dylan Crews beat out an infield roller for his second infield hit and White crushed a 2-run homer out of the ballpark. Morgan followed with another long homer to right to make it 4-0.

The Gorilla ball continued in the bottom of the fourth as Gavin Dugas ripped his 15th homer of the year to left-center to make it 5-0.

Louisiana's Own@gavin_dugas04 | ESPNews pic.twitter.com/lqSeSCEIKs

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) June 11, 2023

Nine-hole hitter Josh Pearson blistered his third homer of the season in the fifth inning to make it 6-0.

Postseason Pearson@joshpearsonbb2 | ESPNews pic.twitter.com/tCmizqbrfZ

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) June 11, 2023

After Crews reached on an error and White singled, Morgan singled to left, scoring Crews and it was 7-0, knocking Lee out of the game with Christian Howe taking over on the mound for the Wildcats.

Howe hit former Northshore and Delgado star Brayden Jobert with a pitch with the bases loaded to plate another run to and a wild pitch plated another run and Jordan Thompson got in on the fun with a 2-run single and it was 11-0 after five innings.

White delivered another monstrous home run in the sixth inning, which also left the entire ballpark, to give LSU a 12-0 lead.

LSU made it a Baker’s dozen in the bottom of the seventh on a double by Jobert of Northshore and an RBI single by Thompson. Crews drove in another run with a sacrifice fly.

The Tigers, who are tied for second in the country in home runs, have now drilled 15 homers in their last three games, a tremendous trend.

Skenes was tremendous in the final outing of his career at home, pitching 7.2 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits with a walk and nine strikeouts, using just 101 pitches. He reached a 3-ball count just once all night. Skenes now has 188 strikeouts on the season.

Blake Money took over in the bottom of the eighth and retired all four batters he faced.

Johnson was able to save his primary pitching and was able to play many reserves, including Ben Nippolt, Alex Milazzo, Whit Merrifield, Paxton Kling and Jared Jones.

Morgan finished 4 for 5 with the two homers and three RBI while White was 3 for 5 with two home runs and three RBI.

“When one guy breaks the seal, it gets the whole team going,” Morgan said. “I struggled a little bit in the regional. I was a little bit jumpy. Earlier today, I was working to the middle and opposite field. We’re definitely leaving it all on the line now. The work Skenes puts in is kind of the recipe for every time he steps on the bump.”

Now 3-1 against Kentucky on the season, LSU has bludgeoned Wildcat pitching for 47 runs in four games but the Tigers still need one more win to reach the College World Series for the 19th time and for the first time since 2017.

Game two is set for 5:06 p.m. Sunday and will air nationally on ESPN2.

FINAL
KTY 000 000 000 — 0 4 1, 5 LOB
LSU 103 161 20X — 14 15 1, 4 LOB
WP—Paul Skenes (12-2)
LP—Zack Lee (5-4)
2B—Brayden Jobert, Jared Jones
HR—Tre’ Morgan-2 (9), Tommy White-2 (22), Gavin Dugas (15), Josh Pearson (3)

POSTGAME NOTES (Courtesy of LSU Athletics)

• Paul Skenes now has 188 strikeouts this season, and he is in second place on the LSU single-season list; the LSU and SEC record-holder is Ben McDonald, who fired 202 strikeouts in 1989.

• The LSU pitching staff has established the school single-season record for strikeouts with 684; the previous school mark was 682 set in 1997.

• Tre’ Morgan posted his second career two-homer game; his first came earlier this season (May 14) vs. Mississippi State in Alex Box Stadium.

• Tommy White recorded his fourth two-homer game this season.

• LSU hit six homers in a game for the second time this season; the Tigers also hit six homers at Georgia on May 18.

• LSU’s six homers in last night’s game represented its most in an NCAA Tournament game since the Tigers hit seven homers in Game 3 of the 2008 NCAA Super Regional vs. UC Irvine in the original Alex Box Stadium. That game was the final contest in the original Alex Box Stadium, which opened in 1938.

• LSU has 132 home runs this season; the third-highest total in school history. LSU hit 188 homers in 1997 and 157 homers in 1998.

• LSU has homered 15 times in its last three games