LSU Coach Jay Johnson said following Thursday night’s 11-10 thrilling win that it was the best victory of the season.
Hard to argue with that statement after the Tigers rallied back from a 5-1 deficit and then a 10-7 deficit to win by one run to advance to Saturday’s semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
Shortstop Michael Braswell had the game winning hit against his former team. Braswell spent his first two years of college at South Carolina and came up in the top of the 9th inning with two outs and a runner on third base.
Despite all of the emotions one would have facing their former team, Braswell stayed within himself and hit one the other way to drive in Jake Brown. Braswell said when he reached first base it’s the happiest he’s ever been on the baseball field.
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How about the game Brown had? Brown started the season as a starting outfielder, but struggled and only got a few starts here and there during SEC play.
Johnson started Brown because he had two good at-bats earlier in the week in Hoover and he likes having left-handed hitters in the line-up, plus he thought it was a good match-up against South Carolina’s starting pitcher Tyler Pitzer.
Brown hit his third home run of the season to tie the game at five in the fourth inning. The freshman from Sulphur had three hits on the night.
Another freshman, Steven Milam, had four hits, driving in runs in the 2nd and 4th innings.
Thatcher Hurd, Nate Ackenhausen and Christian Little all got touched up for multiple runs, But Justin Loer and Fidel Ulloa pitched very well in the final three innings to give the Tigers a chance to come back from a three-run deficit.
LSU also got a big break in the 8th inning. A ground ball hit by Josh Pearson to first baseman Gavin Casas, when through his legs, scoring two runs and getting LSU within one run.
LSU has seen several games get away this season against Florida, Vanderbilt, and Alabama, it was nice to see it go the other way, in LSU’s favor.
The victory on Thursday, means a well-deserved day off Friday and then LSU will play either South Carolina or Kentucky in the semifinals at noon on Saturday.
LSU doesn’t have much pitching left, but they also don’t want to lose anymore games.