Instant Recap: LSU baseball beats UCLA and inches closer to a CWS finals trip
After taking game one in Omaha against Arkansas, LSU was scheduled to face the UCLA Bruins in the winner's bracket. The winner of this game would be one win away from the College World Series finals. LSU would pull away after the rain delay to win this one 9-5.
Anthony Eyanson got the start on the mound for the Tigers, but things did not go according to plan. The Bruins scored three runs in the top of the first inning, and no ball went further than the infield. If the Tigers wanted to win this one, they would have to dig themselves out of an early hole.
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It did not take them long to do that, as LSU took the lead in the bottom of the first inning, scoring four runs as Jake Brown hit an RBI single and Jared Jones hit a three-run bomb to give LSU a 4-3 lead.
The score would remain that way until the bottom of the third inning when an RBI single by Luis Hernandez would hit an RBI single to increase the LSU lead to 5-3.
Before the start of the fourth inning, the sky opened up, and rain started to pour in Omaha. The game was suspended until 10 a.m. CT on Tuesday.
After the rain delay, Eyanson was done, so the question this morning was, who would Jay Johnson choose to pitch for the rest of this game? The answer to that was freshman Casan Evans. Evans entered and got a groundout and two strikeouts to send us to the bottom of the fourth.
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The LSU bats picked up where they left off on Monday, as the Tigers plated two runs. Steven Milam hit an RBI single, and Jake Brown hit an RBI single to extend the LSU lead to 7-3.
In the top of the sixth inning, UCLA had a runner on first with only one out, and Milam decided to show off some of his defensive prowess as he initiated a 6-3 double play in style.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Daniel Dickinson hit an RBI single to score Jones and extend the lead to 8-3 Tigers as we went to the eighth inning. After a single and a hit by pitch, Evans' day was done as Cooper Williams would enter to pitch.
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Evans finished the day after pitching 4.1 innings and allowing two runs on four hits, five strikeouts, and zero walks.
A walk, a fielder's choice, an RBI single, and another walk loaded the bases for the Bruins as they cut the lead to 8-5. That would be the end of the line for Williams as Chase Shores entered to pitch. Shores got a groundout on his first pitch to end the inning and keep LSU in the lead.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, LSU looked to get some insurance runs to offset the two runs UCLA got in the top of the eighth. They would do just that as Jones hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 9-5.
Shores retired the Bruins 1-2-3 and LSU is now one win away from a trip to the CWS final.
This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: Instant Recap: LSU beats UCLA and a weather delay to go 2-0 in Omaha
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