Survive and Advance: LSU Beats North Carolina 8-4

Thatcher Hurd shines and the Tigers force a game 7

LSU woke up Sunday morning with their season on the line and 12 hours later they’ve forced a winner-take-all game 7 tomorrow in Chapel Hill.

After rallying to beat Wofford Sunday morning, the Tigers beat the hosting North Carolina Tar Heels 8-4. The winner of Monday’s game will advance to the Super Regionals.

Thatcher Hurd got the start for LSU and looked like the Hurd that shined last summer in Omaha. Hurd cruised through the first five innings before running into some trouble in the sixth. Hurd was ultimately lifted in the sixth but he gave LSU more than they could have hoped for. In fact he retired the first 11 UNC batters that he faced. The final line for Hurd: 5.2 innings, six hits, six Ks, and just two runs.

LSU’s pitching was virtually perfect in the first half of the game. The same can’t be said for the second half.

Justin Loer was the first arm out of the pen and did not record an out. Loer only faced one batter and walked him to load the bases in just five pitches.

Loer was pulled for Fidell Ulloa. He was basically a coin flip pitcher, meaning he faced four batters and ended up walking two, but struck out the other two. He was charged also charged with two earned runs.

Kade Anderson came on in relief of Ulloa. He faced eight batters and his outing was certainly a rollercoaster. On the one hand, he struck out three, on the other he gave up a pair of hits and issued a walk.

Gavin Guidry came on and got the four-out save and he made it interesting, too. Guidry faced seven batters and walked two, struck out, and gave up on hit. He gave me and LSU fans all over the world a heart attack by loading the bases in the ninth and Gavin Gallaher smashed what looked like a game-tying grand slam.

Neither Anderson nor Guidry looked like Mariano Rivera tonight but you know what? They didn’t give up a run and that’s all that matters.

The LSU bullpen was a mess Sunday night. The combination of Loer-Ulloa-Anderson-Guidry threw a total of 99 pitches: 50 were balls, 49 were strikes. They were almost quite literally 50/50 on finding the strike zone.

But all that doesn’t matter because the LSU offense continued to keep the pedal down. After scoring 13 runs and mashing 21 hits in the early game against Wofford, the Tigers put up another 8 runs and 11 hits in the second game. That’s 21 runs off 32 hits in about a 12-hour span. Here’s hoping whatever they found offensively carries over into Monday.

After going 3-4 at the plate in the early game, Josh Pearson’s hot bat extended into the game two. Pearson hit a two-run shot to put LSU up 2-0 in the first.

LSU would plate another run in the third, but blew things open in the fourth.

The Tigers would put up four runs in the fourth inning to grab a 7-1 advantage. Travinski got things started with a single and was able to make it to second because of a fielding error by Vance Honeycutt. Then things got a little weird. Jake Brown was asked to try and lay down a sacrifice bunt, but North Carolina’s Kyle Percival couldn’t find the strike zone. Percival walked Brown on five pitches and then walked Ben Nippolt, who was called upon to also try and lay down a sac bunt. Percival threw nine pitches and eight were balls.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, Tommy White got a critical base hit that scored a run to make it a 4-1 game. Steven Milam followed that with a single that drove in two and pushed LSU’s lead to 6-1. Bear Jones was able to keep the inning going with a walk, and Pearson had another productive AB. He hit into a double play but was able to bring home White and make it a 7-1 game.

Hayden Travinski continued to stay hot in the fifth and hit a solo shot to give LSU its eighth and final run.

LSU and North Carolina will play the Chapel Hill Regional championship game at 5:00 tomorrow. At the time of this writing, a TV carrier has yet to be announced. We do know, however, that LSU will be the home team tomorrow.

Monday’s a one game season, y’all. Let’s do it.