The LSU Tigers and UCLA Bruins met Monday night in a winner’s bracket matchup for their portion of the Men’s College World Series in Omaha. After an offensive first inning, the game was delayed in the fourth inning due to rain and later postponed to Tuesday morning. There, LSU continued the offensive production and got a massive outing from Casan Evans on the mound to advance to Wednesday night in a 2-0 position after a 9-5 win.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
UCLA jumped on Anthony Eyanson right out of the gate with three runs in the top of the first inning when Dean West singled first, then Roch Cholowsky reached on the fielder’s choice, followed by another single from Mulivai Levu to put a pair of Bruins on base. Roman Martin got the first run of the game in with an RBI double down the left field line, followed by a single from AJ Salgado and an infield groundout by Payton Brennan, and before you knew it, UCLA had a 3-0 lead.
LSU responded rather quickly with three straight singles from Ethan Frey, Steven Milam, and Jake Brown to bring Frey home and cut into the lead at 3-1. Then, Jared Jones bounced back from his five-strikeout game on Saturday with a monstrous three-run blast to right center to give LSU the 4-3 lead.
In the bottom of the third, LSU added another run with an RBI single from Luis Hernandez to score Frey for the second time and make it a 5-3 game. Then, in the top of the fourth, a rain delay forced the game to stop, which led to a 3+-hour delay and a later postponement to Tuesday morning.
Casan Evans got the start at the top of the fourth inning when the game resumed, and he was excellent again, keeping UCLA off the scoreboard. In the bottom of the fourth, Derek Curiel singled and Frey walked to put a pair of Tigers on, then back-to-back singles from Milam and Brown pushed a pair of runs across to make it 7-3 LSU after four innings.
In the seventh inning, UCLA got just their second single off of Evans as the freshman continued to step up in huge ways with five strikeouts in the first three innings of work.
Daniel Dickinson delivered another RBI, thanks in large part to a groundout from Michael Braswell that moved Jones to third base. Dickinson hit a bloop single to shallow right field to score Jones and make it 8-3.
In the eighth, UCLA got a single from Levu, who advanced on a wild pitch. Martin was then hit by a pitch, which was the last straw for Evans. Cooper Williams then comes in and walks Salgado to load the bases with just one out. A run would come into score on a fielder’s choice groundout to cut into LSU’s advantage at 8-4, then an infield single slowly hit up the middle from Blake Balsz scored another run to make it 8-5. Williams then allowed his second walk of the inning to load the bases again. However, Chase Shores came in and needed just one pitch to get LSU out of the jam.
In the bottom of the eighth, LSU got an insurance run on an RBI single from Jones to make it 9-5. Then, in the ninth, Chase Shores came back out and closed the deal for the Tigers, putting them at 2-0 in Omaha for the eighth time (in six of their seven titles, they’ve started 2-0).
BIG NUMBER: 68
Casan Evans was asked to start the resumption of a delayed game after Eyanson threw just 44 pitches on Monday night, and he delivered in big ways, throwing 68 pitches of scoreless baseball in 4.1 innings of work.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Casan Evans
The true freshman once again stepped up in a huge spot for the Tigers, throwing 68 pitches of scoreless baseball. He finished with 4.1 innings, four hits, and five strikeouts.
UP NEXT: LSU will advance to Wednesday night to play the winner of UCLA and Arkansas. Times are currently TBD, but you will hear it on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette and 104.1 Lake Charles.