The final game for Jared Poche in the Box was a brief one after a poor showing in the third inning against Mississippi State. LSU showed that resiliency that was shown late on Saturday to punch their ticket to Omaha with a 12-4 victory. LSU started off strong with a pair of RBI singles from Antoine Duplantis and Greg Deichmann gave them an early 2-0 lead. Michael Papierski made it 3-0 in the second, scoring off of a balk. The Bulldogs came out swinging in the bottom of the third with Harrison Bragg blasting one out of the Box to cut the lead down to one run. Jake Mangum made it 3-all later in the inning after Poche loaded the bases with an RBI single. Elijah MacNamee wrapped up the flurry with an RBI single of his own to give Mississippi State a 4-3 lead. Things got interesting in the bottom of the fifth when Papierski gave LSU the lead with a two-run double that just got out of reach of Brent Rooker. LSU started to catch fire in the fifth with four more runs. LSU put the game out of reach in the ninth with a five-run inning capped off by a two-run single from Duplantis. Caleb Gilbert improved to 6-1 on the season after coming in to relieve Poche in the bottom of the third. Gilbert threw five and two-thirds innings of shutout baseball, allowing two hits, walked one, and struck out six. The Tigers will now head to Omaha and face off against Florida State with first pitch to be determined after the completion of the Florida-Wake Forest Super Regional.
