LSU baseball opens Super Regionals with big win over Kentucky

After what felt like days of weather delays, LSU baseball kicked off the Baton Rouge Super Regional with an explosive,14-0 win over the Kentucky Wildcats Saturday night at Alex Box.

The LSU baseball offense didn’t play around on Saturday. Tre Morgan led the way, going a perfect 4-for-4 with three RBIs and two homers. Tommy White followed suit with two homer of his own en route to a 3-for-5 outing with three RBIs. Dylan Crews had yet another multi-hit game and added on an RBI and two runs scored. Jordan Thompson tied the team-high with three RBIs and two hits on the night.

LSU started quick on the night. Kentucky went 3-up, 3-down to start the top of the 1st inning. Then, Tre Morgan got the scoring started with a one-run blast to left field. The runs continued pouring in for the Tigers.

Moran’s second homer was back-to-back with White in the bottom of the 3rd inning, putting the Tigers up 3-0. In the fourth and fifth innings, Gavin Dugas and Josh Pearson homered before LSU pilled on five unearned runs to take a commanding 11-0 advantage through the fifth inning.

The Wildcats could do nothing to slow down the Tigers offense as White hit his second (LSU’s sixth) home run of the night with one out in the top of the 6th. Then, LSU capped off the night with two more runs in the bottom of the seventh to complete the 14-0 shutout.

LSU baseball fans had to wait all day for their first Super Regionals game to get underway. The game was first scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. CST, but was pushed back to 7 p.m. because of potential weather. The game proceeded to be pushed back two more times before finally beginning at 9:06 p.m. CST.

In one of his recent press conferences, LSU baseball head coach Jay Johnson implied his team would not begin a game this weekend without knowing they could finish it. Such makes sense, as in last week’s regional, Ty Floyd started LSU’s game before a weather delay forced his early exit. Johnson wanted to make sure the same didn’t happen to Paul Skenes, the best pitcher in the country making the biggest start of his career.

Suffice it to say, waiting out the nasty weather worked brilliantly for LSU.

Skenes was as dominate as he’s been all season. He pitched 7.2 innings before getting a standing ovations from the fans in his final LSU home game. Skenes was surgical, striking out nine batters and allowing just four hits in the shutout.

The Tigers will take on the Kentucky Wildcats in game two of the Baton Rouge Super Regional on Sunday at 5 p.m. CST.