LSU Eliminated in 10 Innings by North Carolina

A salute to Will Hellmers

LSU’s 2024 season came one win and one run short in Chapel Hill.

LSU blew a 3-2 9th inning lead to lose to North Carolina 4-3 in the deciding game seven of the Chapel Hill Regional. North Carolina advances to play West Virginia in the Super Regional.

Sam Dutton got the start and was an abject disaster. Dutton faced three batters and gave up three hits before being pulled for Javen Coleman. Coleman inherited a bases load situation and walked the first batter he faced on four pitches. Coleman was able to induce a double play but North Carolina traded the twin killing for its second run of the day. Coleman was able to record an inning-ending fly out to somehow, someway limit the damage to just a 2-0 deficit.

LSU was able to get a run back in the first inning. Tommy White led the game off with a single. Jared Jones took a pitch to put two on with one out, and Tanks and Bear were able to advance 90 feet thanks to a wild pitch. Josh Pearson drove White home with a groundout to second and LSU was back in the game trailing 2-1.

Coleman took the mound in the second inning and it looked like he had locked in. He got the first out of the inning on a three-pitch strikeout but then walked the next batter on four pitches. That’s when Will Hellmers came in and that’s when Will Hellmers took over.

Hellmers pitched a career-best and heroic 5.2 innings of shutout ball. Hellmers only gave up two hits and deserved to have his efforts remembered forever like Griffin Herring’s game against Wofford, Nate Ackenhausen’s game against Tennessee last June in Omaha, or Paul Skenes’s masterful final outing against Wake Forest.

While Hellmers threw up zero after zero, the LSU offense tied and reclaimed the lead by way of the long ball. Jake Brown tied the game in the second with a solo blast, and Bear Jones gave LSU a 3-2 lead in third with a homer of his own.

But while Hellmers kept North Carolina off the scoreboard, his offense wouldn’t give him any extra support. After Michael Braswell got hit by a pitch with two outs in the bottom of the third, the Tigers wouldn’t get another baserunner on until Jones walked in the 8th.

Speaking of that eighth inning, Hellmers gave up a leadoff walk and was pulled for Nate Ackenhausen. Ack, after an awful start yesterday against Wofford, redeemed himself by striking out the only three batters he faced. He made it interesting and had back-to-back full counts, but he came through and threw up a 0.

LSU had the lead going into the ninth and that’s when Jay Johnson pushed in all his chips. Despite Ack getting three Ks, Johnson made the decision to insert Gage Jump to try and close the game out. Jump gave up a double to the first batter he faced, but struck out the second. LSU was two outs away from advancing to a Super Regional when Colby Wilkerson hit a game-tying bloop single. Jump was able to keep the game tied and give LSU a chance to walk if off in the ninth but the Tiger offense wasn’t able to cash in on a single by Hayden Travinski. Jake Brown crushed a ball that sure seemed like it was going to leave the yard and give LSU a 5-3 win, but the ball died around the warning track of right centerfield.

Jump came back out for the 10th inning and nearly escaped without giving up a run. Jump got a flyout to left and a strikeout to start the 10th, but Jake Brown dropped a fly ball that put what proved to be the winning run on second. Alex Madera drove in the game winning run with a single up the middle.

Tommy White’s final AB as a Tiger was one to be forgotten. He flew out to right field chasing a high pitch. Steven Milam went down on two pitches as well. Jared Jones was able to reach base by drawing yet another walk, but Pearson flew out to center to end the 2024 season.