Wake Forest rallies to edge LSU, 3-2, in pivotal College World Series game

BOX SCORE

In a game Monday night between the two betting favorites to win the College World Series, the margin figured to be razor thin.

That proved to be the case.

The razor cut LSU like a knife and it came from a former Tulane player who performed his best for a former University of New Orleans coach.

Former Green Wave catcher Bennett Lee singled home Danny Corona with the winning run as top seed Wake Forest edged the Tigers 3-2 at Charles Schwab Field.

Corona started the rally with a double on an 0-2 hanging breaking ball from losing pitcher Thatcher Hurd.

The game began with Josh Hartle and Ty Floyd throwing a ton of swing-and-miss pitches. Hartle struck out nine in six innings while Floyd struck out 10 in five innings.

“It was a great college baseball game,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “Hats off to the pitching on both sides. They got a clutch hit there at the end and we did not. We’ll get ready to go tomorrow.”

Both got in trouble with walks on a night where the plate umpire was curious at best, simply poor at worst.

In the top of the third inning, Josh Pearson drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Tommy White singled to center, scoring Pearson to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. White advanced to second on an error. Tre’ Morgan then tripled to left, scoring White as left-fielder Adam Cecere lost a line drive in the sun and it sailed over him to the wall and it was 2-0.

Pierce Bennett led off with a single to right in the bottom of the fourth and advanced on a passed ball by Hayden Travinski.

In the bottom of the sixth, Floyd walked leadoff man Tommy Hawke walked and Floyd committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt to first, allowing Hawke to reach second. He then walked Bennett for the second time and walked Nick Kurtz to load the bases with no outs.

That ended the evening for Floyd with Thatcher Hurd taking over. Brock Wilken greeted Floyd with an RBI single to center to make it 2-1. The tying run scored on a double play groundout and it was even at 2-2. Hurd then hit a batter and walked another to load the bases but he got out of the jam with a strikeout

Cole Roland took over for Wake Forest in the seventh inning. After walking Dylan Crews with two outs, former Tulane hurler Michael Massey entered to face White and got him to ground out to end the inning.

Morgan started things by lacing a double to right field in the eighth inning before Travinski reached on an error on a slow grounder up the middle, advancing Morgan to third.

Cade Beloso hit a ground ball to third base and Morgan broke for the plate with no outs. Wilken threw home and the throw beat Morgan but bounced and catcher Lee picked it and put the tag on Morgan for a huge out. LSU challenged the call and lost the appeal after a lengthy review.

Closer Cam Minacci replaced Massey and got Gavin Dugas to hit into a double play to end the threat.

That set the stage for the winning rally in the bottom of the eighth.

Minacci set down LSU in order in the ninth inning to put it away.

Former UNO coach Tom Walter has his team in the driver’s seat in the bracket. While coaching the Privateers, Walter beat LSU three times, once in 2007 and twice in 2008. All three of those wins came in the last at-bat, which happened again Monday night.

I stated on my radio show on NASH ICON 106.1 FM earlier in the evening that LSU needed to score four runs to win. That proved to be prophetic but do not call me a prophet.

LSU (49-16) was fortunate to score two runs. The triple by Morgan was fortunate and should have been caught. The team with arguably the best offense in the nation looked nothing like it. Of course, that came against the team with the best pitching in the nation, which looked like it.

Wake Forest (54-10) profited from the same formula that has them as the unbeaten top seed in Omaha, including excellent pitching and getting the timely hit which proved untimely for LSU, which must now come back Tuesday to face Tennessee in a do-or-die game.

“I think it would be very easy to crawl in the hole with disappointment,” Johnson said. “That’s a great college baseball game that we came up on the short end of the stick. I have all the faith in the world in our team that we can recover from this. So let’s stick to what we do. And if we do that well, then we’ll be in a good spot.”

LSU 002 000 000 — 2 5 1, 7 LOB
WF 000 002 01X — 3 5 2, 9 LOB
WP—Cam Minacci (1-1)
LP—Thatcher Hurd (6-3)

LSU Tigers (Jay Johnson, Tre’ Morgan, Ty Floyd) – Postgame Press Conference (PDF)

Wake Forest Demon Deacons (Tom Walter, Camden Minacci, Bennett Lee, Josh Hartle) – Postgame Press Conference (PDF)