LSU Comes Up Short Against Tennessee in SEC Tournament Final

Tigers rally late but can’t complete the comeback

LSU’s magical run in Hoover came up just a bit short as the Tigers lost the SEC Tournament final to Tennessee 4-3.

“Very proud of our team this week,” Jay Johnson said. “Accomplished a lot this week with four wins in the toughest league and toughest tournament in baseball. Congratulations to Tennessee for winning the championship today. They’ve got a great program, great players.”

LSU entered the bottom of the ninth inning trailing 4-1 and was able to get two runs across. They even had the tying run at second base, but Alex Milazzo struck out swinging to end the game.

The Tigers got on the board first thanks to Bear Jones’s 26th home run of the season. The 471 foot blast was his fourth of the SEC Tournament.

Nate Ackenhausen got the start for LSU and was dominant in the short amount of time he was out there. Ack only faced nine batters, but he struck out six and only gave up one hit.

Ackenhausen was replaced by Fidell Ulloa who had maybe his worst outing of the season. Ulloa did not record an out and in just 15 pitches he gave up two hits, a walk, and a three-run home run to Billy Amick. Ulloa was charged with the loss.

Aside from Ulloa, the LSU pitching staff had a pretty strong collective outing. Christian Little replaced Ulloa and did not allow a run in the inning he pitched. Little might have issued a pair of walks and gave up a hit, but he was able to keep Tennessee from scoring. Little left the game because of a “lat issue.”

After Little, LSU went with Sam Dutton, Thatcher Hurd, Justin Loer, Will Hellmers, and Kade Anderson to finish the game. That group, including Little, combined to strike out eight and only allowed one run over the final six and one-third innings.

LSU’s offense came into Sunday averaging nearly 11 runs a game in this SEC Tournament, but for the most part Tennessee shut them down. Dylan Loy was credited with the win for the Vols and Loy went 4.2 innings where he allowed no runs, two hits, and struck out five.

The Tigers had a chance to do some damage in the sixth inning but a costly mental error by Steven Milam ruined that opportunity. Ethan Frey was called upon to pinch-hit with the bases loaded and two outs, but Milam got picked off at first base by an admittedly great defensive play by Cal Stark and Blake Burke.

They don’t give out trophies for finishing as the tournament runner ups, but this week in Hoover can only be considered a massive success for LSU. The Tigers came into Hoover likely on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, but after picking up four wins LSU is not only in the field of 64, they’re probably a two-seed.

You always want to be playing your best ball this time of year, and that’s exactly what the Tigers are doing. They’re 18-6 in their last 24 games and 14-6 in their last 20 SEC games, a far cry from the 3-12 conference start. I’ll put my hand up, I wrote this team off and they’ve proven me and a whole lotta other people wrong.

“I think the story is how we played all week long,” Jay Johnson said. “We had two dominant pitching performances. We had two dominant offensive performances, and came up a little bit short today.”

The NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed Monday at 11:00 A.M. on ESPN2. The Tigers won’t be one of the 16 hosting teams, but I’m confident that whoever does draw LSU in their region won’t be too thrilled about it.