By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
HOOVER, Ala. – Legendary retired LSU baseball coach Skip Bertman’s favorite saying, especially in tight games and critical situations, was “Hold the rope.”
Which is exactly what LSU starting pitcher Luke Holman and reliever Gavin Guidry did against No. 2 ranked Kentucky in the opening game of Wednesday morning’s SEC tournament double-elimination round.
Holman and Guidry combined for a 1-hitter and a trio of Tigers’ hitters finally broke up a 2-0 tug-of-war with a home run barrage that accelerated LSU to a stunning 11-0 eight-inning run-rule victory.
First baseman Jared Jones and designated hitter Hayden Travinski launched a grand slam and a solo homer respectively in the Tigers’ five-run seventh and third baseman Tommy White cleared the bases with a grand slam in the eighth.
The win removed any remaining doubt that the defending national champion Tigers (38-20), winners of 16 of their last 21 games, have earned an NCAA tournament at-large bid that a week ago was in doubt coming off a league series loss at Alabama.
Since then, LSU has ripped off five straight SEC victories by sweeping Ole Miss last weekend in the final regular season league series before outscoring 11th-ranked Georgia and SEC regular-season co-champion Kentucky 20 to 1 in the first two days of the conference tournament.
“I felt good about where we stood coming into this thing, and now there’s no question about where we’re at and what we’re capable of, the quality of the team, the eye test, the performance. . .it’s all there,” said LSU head coach Jay Johnson, whose team advanced to Thursday’s 3:30 p.m. winners bracket matchup vs. South Carolina. “Our guys were ready to play.”
The Tigers weren’t fazed by a 9:30 a.m. start for the second straight day.
In Tuesday’s 9-1 win, LSU sent Georgia starter Jarvis Evans to the showers after 24 pitches. The Tigers led 3-0 after 1½ innings and 5-0 after 4½ innings as LSU starter Gage Jump authored a seven-inning masterpiece allowing a run and five hits.
UK starter Travis Smith lasted 31 pitches for the Wildcats (39-13) before being pulled for reliever Robert Hogan after LSU second-inning leadoff hitter Ashton Larson rocketed a double down the right-field line.
Larson eventually scored for a 2-0 on an RBI ground ball by Tigers’ shortstop Michael Braswell III, LSU’s 10th hitter of the contest. Braswell opened the game by hammering Smith’s third pitch for a solo homer.
Hogan and Johnny Hummel, the second of UK’s five eventual relievers, held the Tigers to one hit and no runs in the next four innings.
Yet Holman, selected to the All-SEC second team on Monday, didn’t blink facing 22 Wildcats’ batters. He finished with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks and allowed no hits with just one UK hitter reaching third base.
“I mixed (pitches) really well today,” said Holman, who improved to 9-3. “Fastball was a little iffy sometimes. But I’d say I was able, even behind on hitters, I still stayed in the zone and was able to mix from behind and in front.”
Holman was not needed to return for the bottom of the seventh after throwing 100 pitches (63 for strikes). Jones and Travinski picked a perfect time to bust their hitting slumps in the top of the seventh.
Since Jones was in a 2-for-23 hitting funk including 13 strikeouts, UK head coach Nick Mingione decided after Wildcats’ reliever Cameron O’Brien threw two pitches to White to issue the red-hot Tigers’ slugger an intentional walk to load the bases with one out.
Considering Jones was hitless in the SEC tourney (0 for 8), Mingione figured the percentages were in his favor.
“We had the game that we wanted,” Mingione said. “We had pieced it together exactly right. And then it got away from us.”
Because Jones whacked O’Brien’s 3-2 pitch for a grand slam homer over the left field wall for a 6-0 lead.
“Coach Johnson pulled me aside after my second at-bat when I struck out and just said “Get back to seeing the ball and being in character in the box’,” said Jones, who has 23 homers this season.
“That’s something I had kind of lost focus of over the last couple of games. Just going out there with a clear mind and just trying to get a pitch up in the zone and put a good swing on it.”
An out and two batters later, former Bossier City Airline slugger Travinski put his 5 for 39 (with 10 strikeouts) hitting nosedive aside. His solo homer extended the Tigers’ margin to 7-0.
LSU, happy to just finally have breathing room, wasn’t thinking about a run-rule win.
But White made that a possibility with one out in the top of the eighth when he hit the fifth grand slam and the 14th first-pitch homer of his two-year 123-game LSU career. The Tigers became the first team in SEC history to hit two grand slams in a league tourney game.
Guidry closed out the Wildcats three up and three down in the bottom of the eighth to send the Tigers to their next matchup against South Carolina, a 6-5 Wednesday afternoon upset winner over 5th-ranked Arkansas.
It will be the third game in three days against an SEC foe that wasn’t on LSU’s regular season schedule. And it presents a problem the Tigers have rarely solved all season in winning just 2 of 10 Game 3’s in SEC play: having enough rested quality pitching arms available.
Since LSU in its first two SEC tourney wins has used just four pitchers – a starter and a reliever in each game – Johnson has a few more options than usual.
“This year has been a little bit of a blip at the beginning of SEC play,” said Johnson of his team losing its first five league series (including four top 6 nationally ranked opponents). “But they dominated the non-conference schedule, they played great on the back of the SEC schedule, and they’re off to a great start in the postseason.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com