There was no waiting this time around, it was all power and pitching, and the LSU Tigers are headed back to Omaha.
LSU baseball downed Kentucky 8-3 to finish off an unbeaten run though the regional and super regional at Alex Box Stadium. The Tigers advance to Omaha with a plus-19 run differential in the supers. That's the largest such number by an SEC school since the current format began in 1999.
Power has been the calling card for LSU all season, and that didn't change in Game 2. Cade Beloso had the big shot with a three-run home run in the third inning, with the Tigers batting around. Tre' Morgan kicked off the inning with a wall-ball double, then ended it with a groundout. Tommy White earned the other RBI with an infield single with the bases loaded.
The Wildcats were able to keep pace on the strength of the longball themselves, a departure from their typical small-ball attack. Each of Kentucky's Jackson Gray, Devin Burkes and Nolan McCarthy knocked solo home runs over the fence off starter Ty Floyd, who went 3.1 innings, striking out 5 while allowing 7 hits and 3 home runs.
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Riley Cooper took over and successfully stifled the Wildcats offense, clearing the final two outs. The lefty went 3 innings, allowing just two hits and no runs. Kentucky ace reliever Mason Moore did the same on the other side with 4.1 impressive innings, allowing just two hits with five strikeouts.
Gavin Guidry took over from Cooper in the 7th and quickly found himself in a jam, but notched a clutch strikeout of Ryan Waldschmidt in a full count with runners on first and third. Ryan Church, who pinch hit in the 5th inning, stepped up and missed a double to left field by inches as it appeared to land just outside the foul line. He worked the count full, but then was caught looking on a curveball from the freshman Guidry to maintain LSU's 5-3 lead.
After being held scoreless for five consecutive innings, the Tigers finally landed themselves some insurance as the Kentucky bullpen imploded at the worst possible time. After Darren Williams pitched a scoreless 8th for Kentucky, Ryder Giles and Magdiel Cotto combined for just one out but left a lot of traffic on the basepaths. Gavin Dugas reached home on a wild pitch that was Cotto's final throw of the night. The Wildcats made a pitching change to Seth Chavez, then made the confounding decision to pitch to Dylan Crews with runners on 2nd and 3rd, and he delivered with a two-RBI single to expand the lead to 8-3.
With the expanded lead, Guidry finished things out for LSU, which he's done in three of their past four games, all wins. His final line was 2.2 innings with 1 hit and no runs allowed. Cooper earned the win while Guidry earned the save.
Dugas continued to be a target in the box, reaching base twice on hit-by-pitches. His free base in the 7th inning was his 29th on the season, which ranks 4th in the entire NCAA.
LSU won Game 1 of the supers 14-0 on Saturday behind ace Paul Skenes. The trip to the College World Series will be the 19th in program history for LSU, and its first since 2017. As of 8:30 p.m. Sunday, five teams had already punched their tickets to Omaha, including Wake Forest, Florida, TCU, Oral Roberts and Virginia.
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