LSU’s championship heart exceeds even its remarkable talent

LSU was a clear-cut favorite to win the Men’s College World Series starting in January.

It was a unanimous preseason No. 1 and held on to the top spot in the polls for 11 weeks.

It slipped a bit down the stretch, but still earned a national seed and a spot in the MCWS by sweeping through the Baton Rouge Regional and the Baton Rouge Super Regional.

All of the expectations had their genesis in what could be seen on paper – the Tigers’ extremely talented roster led by Dylan Crews, Paul Skenes and Tommy White.

But LSU’s seventh national championship, which came by an 18-4 victory against Florida on Monday night in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the title series, wasn’t just because of the talent that could easily be seen, but equally because of something that couldn’t be evaluated in January – a degree of heart and character at least equal to the physical skill.

Sometimes extremely talented teams – especially ones considered the most talented in the country – don’t have intangibles that match their tangibles, especially when two of the top three players (Skenes, Air Force and White, N.C. State) are newcomers to the program and each other.

But time and again, when it appeared the Tigers’ enviable talent might be insufficient to bring home a national championship – even as the talent mostly matched expectations – their championship heart came to the forefront.

They looked vulnerable for the first time as they struggled to 8-9 record down the stretch of the regular season and concerns about the reliability of the pitching staff after Skenes prompted evaluation of whether it was a fatal flaw, or perhaps just a potential Achilles heel.

A 1-2 record in the SEC tournament did little to allay concerns.

But No. 2 starter Ty Floyd and relievers Nate Ackenshausen, Riley Cooper and Gavin Guidry had encouraging outings leading into the NCAA tournament.

The pitching continued to improve in the NCAAs as the Tigers defeated Tulane and Oregon State (twice) in the regional and swept Kentucky in the super regional.

Then came the trip to Omaha and LSU faced adversity that it hadn’t faced earlier in the tournament.

After Skenes led the way in an opening victory against Tennessee, the Tigers fell into the losers bracket with a one-run loss to No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest, the only team other than LSU to sit atop the polls this season.

The Tigers didn’t blink, beating the Volunteers a second time before winning two games in a row against Wake Forest, the second being a 2-0 triumph in which Skenes was virtually unhittable and Crews reached base ahead of White’s Warren Morris-like homer in the 11th inning.

That brought a title series match-up against Florida, which wasn’t on the Tigers’ SEC schedule this season but which had swept LSU in its last trip to the title series in 2017.

Skenes was unavailable to start the series opener after throwing 120 pitches on four days rest against Wake 48 hours earlier.

No problem.

Floyd tied an MCWS record with 17 strikeouts and Cade Beloso hit a game-winning homer in the 11th inning of Game 1 on Saturday.

But this run wasn’t going to end without more adversity.

Concerns about the Tigers’ pitching depth resurfaced in a 24-4 loss in Game 2 on Sunday.

LSU had almost exactly 24 hours to get over Game 2 before it started Game 3 and that’s when second-year coach Jay Johnson took over.

First he resisted the understandable temptation to bring back Skenes to start on three days rest and instead gave the ball to Thatcher Hurd. He was rewarded with a championship-caliber six-inning outing from Hurd and one inning from Cooper and two from Guidry even though the coach offered a tease by having Skenes warm up in the bullpen during the eighth inning before he returned to the dugout in the ninth.

Johnson stuck by shortstop Jordan Thompson, who was 1-for-30 at the plate before Monday and made a pair of errors in the Game 2 blowout. Thompson went 2 for 6 with three RBI in Game 3 and led a resurgent performance by the bottom four hitters in the lineup, who went 10 for 22 after struggling for most of the series.

Josh Pearson, whose leaping catch of a line drive prevented a walk-off, season-ending loss in Thursday’s game against Wake, added a homer and two RBI.

The turnaround from the bottom of the order was triggered by Johnson’s decision to move designated hitter Cade Beloso from the No. 5 spot in the order to the leadoff spot for the first time in his career.

Johnson’s expectation was that moving Beloso to the top spot would discourage the Gators from pitching around Beloso with Crews, White and Tre’ Morgan, whose spectacular out-producing field and toss in the third game against Wake might have saved this season, and Gavin Dugas waiting in the wings.

When the championship series ended without Skenes throwing a pitch, he still provided one of the lasting images as he gave catcher Alex Milazzo, who had been sidelined after suffering a painful lower leg injury while scoring a run earlier in the game, a piggy-back ride to the dogpile celebration.

This championship’s team talent was special.

But its character was especially special.

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