North Carolina Beats LSU 6-2

The Tigers are on the brink of elimination

They say that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Well North Carolina was both lucky and good as the Chapel Hill Regional hosting Tar Heels beat LSU 6-2 in the winner’s bracket game.

LSU had multiple chances early to grab a lead over North Carolina, but they blew their opportunities thanks to a combination of poor execution on the Tigers’ part and great defense by the Tar Heels.

The Tigers got at least one runner on in each of the first three innings but couldn’t do anything with it. In the first LSU got base hits from both Tommy White and Josh Pearson, but a Hayden Travinski fielder’s choice ended that early threat.

In the second LSU got completely hosed by the umpires. With Alex Milazzo on first and Ashton Larson on second and only one out, Jake Brown hit a grounder up the middle. UNC second basemen flipped the ball to Colby Wilkerson at short to get Milazzo at second, but Brown beat the throw to first. Unfortunately Milazzo was inexplicably called for runners interference. What’s worse is even after reviewing it, they still upheld the interference ruling.

I don’t believe games are “FIXED” by refs or umpires. I genuinely don’t. I just think most (all?) of them are just bad at their jobs and that’s worse. To call this interference is crazy, but to double down on it is worse and I’m convinced the only reason the crew confirmed the call is because they’re trying to protect the guy who blew the call. LSU should have had runners on the corners with two outs, instead a bad call and an even worse “review” ended that chance for LSU.

But one bad call doesn’t make or break a game and LSU had plenty of other opportunities to win. Take the fifth inning for example: LSU has two one with only one out and Tommy White coming up to bat. North Carolina goes to their bullpen and brings on Ben Peterson. White is clearly hunting for a first-pitch fastball. Peterson, knowing that, throws him an offspeed pitch instead. White takes the bait, swings at the first pitch, and hits into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

Compare LSU’s lack of execution in the top of the fifth to North Carolina coming through in the bottom half. Luke Holman—who up to this point is cruising—finally runs into some trouble. He’s got runners on second and third with only one out thanks to some pretty unfortunate breaks. Madera laid down a perfect bunt single to reach base and Wilkerson hits a double that barely left the infield. Instead it was a rocket shot right to Jared Jones that, had he been able to hold on, would have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, the ball ricochets off Jones’s glove and North Carolina has future first round pick Vance Honeycutt coming up to bat. To this point, Holman’s given up three hits and the ball never left the infield all three times.

It’s Holman’s third time seeing Honeycutt in this game. Up until this point he had struck him out twice— once looking, the other swinging. Remember how I said White was hunting a first-pitch fastball and didn’t get it? Well Honeycutt did get one and he didn’t miss.

That’s sort of the theme of tonight’s 6-2 loss. North Carolina’s stars made plays, LSU’s didn’t.

LSU, to their credit, battled back. In the seventh inning, Milazzo led things off with a single and reached base for the third time. Brown gets robbed of a hit for a second time—luck, meet skill!—but Braswell and White both come up with singles to load the bases. Jared Jones showed his maturation as a hitter and is able to draw a bases loaded walk. A year ago, Jones absolutely swings at the low ball four offering but Bear’s really worked on his pitch recognition and because of his patience, he’s rewarded with an RBI. Ethan Frey gets called to pinch hit for Josh Pearson and he too shows a very mature approach at the plate and earns another walk to make it a 3-2 game.

And with all the momentum on your side what happens after that? Travinski, your #8 and fifth-year DH hits into an inning-ending double play. Again: North Carolina’s stars made plays, LSU’s didn’t. The LSU offense that scored 43 runs in its first four games at Hoover has since scored nine runs total in its last three games.

Speaking of UNC stars making plays, Honeycutt took Holman deep for a second time in the home half of the seventh to push UNC’s lead back to two runs. It was a shame too because Holman had two outs and Honeycutt down on an 0-2 count. He was literally one pitch away from getting out of it, but his 109th pitch of the evening was one too many.

Holman is charged with the loss but make no mistake he was fantastic aside from two pitches to a soon-to-be first round pick. Holman went 6.2 innings and had 11 Ks to just one walk. But those two bad pitches to Honeycutt yielded four Tar Heel runs.

North Carolina tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth to give them the final 6-2 margin.

And so LSU is on the brink of elimination. The Tigers will play Wofford tomorrow morning at 11:00 A.M., and the winner of that game will play North Carolina at 6:00 Sunday evening. If there’s one saving grace for LSU in this rematch with Wofford it’s that the entire pitching staff, aside from Holman and Gage Jump obviously, should be available to pitch.

Gavin Guidry and Griffin Herring each only threw an inning on Friday. LSU used four relievers on Saturday and the most pitches anyone threw was 14. If LSU wants to advance to the Super Regionals, they’ll need some really strong efforts out of the pen and thankfully everyone’s ready to go.

And hey, last time LSU was pushed to the brink of elimination by an ACC team from North Carolina things worked out okay. Here’s hoping history repeats itself.