Tigers Win 11-10 Thriller Over South Carolina

LSU advances to the SEC Tournament semifinals

The LSU Hoover Magic came back in a big way Thursday night as the Tigers rallied to score a pair of runs in both the 8th and 9th inning to beat South Carolina 11-10.

With the win LSU improves to 3-0 in Hoover and advances to the SEC Tournament semifinal round on Saturday. LSU’s reward for the 3-0 start is having Friday off.

Michael Braswell, the former South Carolina Gamecock, drove in what proved to be the winning run in the ninth with a single down the left field line.

Thursday’s game was a textbook example of a back-and-forth affair. LSU got on the board first in the second inning when Steven Milam drove in Josh Pearson. Carolina was able to respond in the third with five runs. Cole Messina, who has been the hottest hitter in the universe lately, hit a grand slam off of Nate Ackenhausen.

Down but not out, LSU tied the game in the fourth. LSU opened the fourth with back-to-back doubles by Josh Pearson and Hayden Travinski. Travinski’s double brought home Pearson to cut Carolina’s lead to 5-2. Steven Milam was able to bring Travinski home and then freshman Jake Brown tied the game with a two-run homer to right.

Bear Jones was able to break the tie with a solo homer to make it a 6-5 game in the top of the fifth, but the Gamecocks immediately got the run back in the home half of the inning. Tommy White broke the 6-6 tie in the sixth, but Carolina put up four runs to make it 10-7 and seemingly put the game away.

Those Tigers we saw in March and April would have lost tonight. But these Tigers we’re watching now are finding ways to get the job done. Josh Pearson plated two with a single to right and made it a one-run game in the eighth inning.

In the ninth, Milazzo tied the game with a deep sacrifice fly to the left field warning track. Paxton Kling scored easily and the ball was hit so deep that Jake Brown was able to advance from second base to third. That’s when Braswell, facing a two-out situation, was able to give his current team the win over his former team. And I think it might have meant a little something to him.

LSU faced little to no issues in its first two Tournament games against Georgia and Kentucky. And while we’d all love if they kept winning games 9-1 or 11-0, that wasn’t going to last forever. They needed to play one of these ugly, back-and-forth games and LSU rose to the occasion beautifully.

LSU will play in its eighth SEC Tournament semifinal since 2013, which is the most of any school over that span. The Tigers will play the winner of Kentucky-South Carolina on Saturday at noon and that game will be carried by SEC Network.