LSU clinches its 20th trip to Omaha dismantling West Virginia.

X: LSUCoachJ

By Andrew Riedell

In August teams hold their first team meetings and they usually talk about the goals they wanna achieve this season. Some teams talk about winning their conference tournament or making a national tournament appearance. In Baton Rouge, their first team meeting is held in the Omaha Room. Why you may ask? Cause Omaha is the expectation for LSU. Coach Jay Johnson told ABCA, “How many players, coaches, programs start the year wanting to be in Omaha and win a national championship? That's certainly the case for us, but I've learned that you can't win a national championship in October or November. All you can do is make the decision to be completely immersed in whatever you're doing.” That is what this LSU team has done this season as they have been fully immersed in the challenge and expectation of getting to Omaha again. On Sunday night at 11:38 Central Time, the LSU Tigers clinched their 20th trip to Omaha in program history. That is now tied for sixth in D1 baseball history with Oklahoma State as this is also Jay Johnson's 2nd trip to Omaha as the LSU head coach. 

LSU just ambushed West Virginia’s pitching staff in both games as the Tigers outscored the Mountaineers 28-14 in the quick two-game super regional. Coach Jay Johnson made some lineup changes on Saturday before Game 1 and it paid off as he moved Derek Curiel from the lead-off spot to the seven hole and Curiel responded by reaching in every plate appearance going 3-3 with 5 RBIs but the big shot that got things going for the Tigers was Curiel's three run home run in the bottom of the 4th to ignite The Box and give LSU a 3-1 lead. From there the flood gates OPENED as both Steven Milam and Josh Pearson smashed grand slams to add on to the onslaught of West Virginia pitching. Kade Anderson threw his last outing ever at Alex Box Stadium on Saturday as he went 7 innings striking out 7 WVU hitters but he did give up 7 runs. 

On Sunday night both teams had to wait through multiple weather delays again as that has been the norm this season in Baton Rouge but that did not slow down the Tigers offense as after the second inning it was already 6-0 in favor of the Tigers thanks to two RBIs from Jake Brown, a bases clearing double by Steven Milam, and Jared Jones RBI single. The bats stayed hot even when the Mountaineers threatened and came back a little as the score sat at 6-4 but the Tigers' bats stayed hot as Chris Stanfield started the offensive outburst with a two-run single with the bases loaded and then Steven Milam drove in another with an RBI double and then Jake Brown came up again looking to damage and he sent the pitch dead center over the center field wall for a two run home run. Pitching for the Tigers was solid as when West Virginia threatened and scored Anthony Eyanson and company limited the damage. Cooper Williams and Chase Shores shut it down the rest of the way as Shores' final pitch of the game was a 100 MPH fastball swung and missed to clinch LSU's trip to Omaha.

Like I said earlier Omaha is the expectation for LSU and winning the national championship is the goal. On the right side of the bracket, LSU will be matched up in game one on Saturday with a team they took two out of three from earlier this season in Baton Rouge. As they will face off with the Arkansas Razorbacks to kick off the final goal of trying to get national championship number eight for the LSU program.