Crews and Tigers know five wins gets LSU to Omaha
Dylan Crews has always preferred to chart his own course.
In his high school days in Florida as a first-round major league prospect, he had long hair.
“It was past my shoulders,” Crews said.
And when it came time for the draft, he passed the word to major league teams to bypass picking him because he wanted to play collegiately for LSU.
There were a couple of reasons for shunning the pros, and it wasn’t about his estimated worth.
First, he didn’t think his overall game was ready for that level.
“I felt like I wasn’t the right player, I felt I wasn’t fully developed in high school,” said Crews, now projected to be the first player chosen in July’s MLB draft. “Every time I visited here, I always thought it was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss out on.
“I tell kids this (playing for LSU) was the best decision of my life. All the resources they’ve provided me developed me in the way I needed.”
There’s no doubt about that. His list of honors has grown from the day he stepped on campus, starting with National Freshman of the Year in 2021 to winning consecutive SEC Player of the Year honors as well first-team All-American status the last two seasons.
But the second reason Crews came to LSU is still on the table.
“It’s been a dream of mine to play here in the postseason,” Crews said. “It’s a dream of mine to play in Omaha (in the College World Series).
"It's five games to win (three in the Regional, two in the Super Regional to get to the CWS). It's the hardest five games to win and I definitely know how to win and lose those games. But, it's really just focusing on that first game, then moving on to the next one. Keep doing that and we'll be in good shape.”
When Crews takes his usual spot as LSU’s starting center fielder in the Tigers’ NCAA tournament regional opener in Alex Box Stadium Friday at 2 p.m. vs. Tulane, he’s one of LSU’s 25 players on the 27-man postseason roster playing a home NCAA tourney game for the first time in their careers.
Graduate students second baseman Gavin Dugas and designated hitter/first baseman Cade Beloso were freshmen on LSU’s 2019 NCAA tourney team that hosted the regionals and the Super Regionals.
Not even second-year LSU head coach Jay Johnson or any of his staff has experienced a Tigers’ NCAA tourney home game in which the intensity and noise is at DEFCON 1 level.
“We’ve had some great environments (this season),” Johnson said. “The Arkansas Saturday night doubleheader (won by the Tigers), Tennessee obviously (LSU won the series) and Alabama when we were down 7-1 and the next thing you know we’re up 8-7 and everybody is losing their mind.
“I’m excited we’re able to deliver on getting postseason baseball here, which hasn’t happened in four years.”
The Tigers, the fifth overall national seed, enter the NCAA tourney with a 43-15 record, their best mark since the 2015 team that was 48-10 eventually lost in the regional finals in Alex Box to Houston.
LSU is certainly battle tested. The Tigers went 24-10 against 16 opponents (seven from the SEC, nine non-conference) which are in the 2023 NCAA tourney field.
There’s a core of four players – juniors Crews, left fielder/first baseman Tre’ Morgan and shortstop Jordan Thompson and grad student Dugas – who have started or played in all or most of LSU’s 11 postseason games the last two years.
Crews has a sizzling .435 (20 of 46) NCAA tourney batting average with five homers, four doubles, a triple, 10 RBIs and 13 runs scored. Morgan’s NCAA tournament batting average is .319 (15 of 47) with 11 RBIs. Seven of Dugas’ 10 postseason hits are for extra bases including four homers, two triples and a double.
The Tigers, depending on the lineup, will have eight position starters with NCAA tourney experience. Johnson is confident in his offense, especially with third baseman Tommy White (second in nation in RBIs) back in the lineup after sitting out LSU’s 5-4 SEC tourney double elimination loss to Texas A&M last Friday with an undisclosed injury.
And LSU’s pitching?
As of late, the Tigers’ starting rotation of national Player of the Year Paul Skenes, Ty Floyd and Thatcher Hurd has stabilized somewhat the last couple of weeks.
Yet, LSU has just three pitchers who have eight or more innings of NCAA tourney experience.
Junior reliever Riley Cooper, who transferred to LSU last season from Arizona when UA’s Johnson was hired by the Tigers, has thrown 10 innings (5.1 in three Arizona appearances without allowing an earned run, 4.2 innings in two LSU appearances allowing seven earned runs).
Floyd has an NCAA tourney ERA of 6.75 in eight innings spread over three games and sophomore Javen Coleman gave up four runs in nine innings of two 2021 NCAA tourney games before undergoing Tommy John surgery last season.
Skenes, an Air Force transfer who was hammered for six earned runs by Texas last season in his only NCAA tourney appearance and his final game as a Falcon, feels LSU’s pitching is on the upswing as of late.
“Our staff has done a really good job the last couple of weeks,” Skenes said. “As long as we keep us in games, the offense will show up.”
Though Johnson hasn’t announced his starting pitcher to face a 19-40 Tulane team that won the American Athletic Conference tourney as a No. 7 seed to receive an automatic bid, he’ll likely stick with his SEC tourney starting rotation of Hurd, Skenes and Floyd.
LSU won at Tulane 11-5 on April 11, but Johnson is completely disregarding that game after the Green Wave caught fire last weekend.
“I've literally grabbed my folder (from the regular season game vs. Tulane), threw it in the garbage and just started watching the last two weeks (of TU games),” Johnson said. “Credit to them. They're very well coached.”
Tulane first-year head coach Jay Uhlman had to start from virtually ground zero after a mass exodus of players when the Green Wave made a coaching change last season.
It also didn’t help Tulane’s chances at a better record after the Green Wave played the eighth-hardest schedule nationally. Tulane was the only NCAA team with zero games against opponents rated 200 or worse in the RPI.
Also, the Green Wave played almost as many road games (26) including three long trips out West as they did home games (28).
NO. 1 BATON ROUGE REGION SEED LSU (43-15) vs. NO. 4 SEED TULANE (19-40)
WHEN, WHERE
Friday, 2 p.m. CT (ESPNU, Alex Box Stadium, Baton Rouge).
NEXT GAME: LSU-Tulane winner plays No. 2 seed Oregon State/No. 3 seed Sam Houston winner Saturday night at 8 p.m. The losers of Friday's games play in an elimination game Saturday at 2 p.m.
RANKINGS
LSU: No. 5 NCAA national seed (No. 5 NCAA RPI)
TULANE: No. 157 NCAA RPI
LSU VS. TULANE SERIES
LSU leads Tulane, 183-131-3, in a series that began with the first intercollegiate athletics event in LSU history, a 10-8 victory for the Tiger baseball squad over Tulane in 1893. LSU won nine of 10 meetings with the Green Wave from 2011-15, but Tulane has won five of the last eight games in the series. Friday's game will mark the ninth meeting between LSU and Tulane in the NCAA tournament with the Tigers holding a 6-2 overall advantage in tournament games (5-0 vs. Tulane in regionals; 1-2 vs. Tulane in super regional). The most recent NCAA tournament meeting between the schools came on May 31, 2003, a 13-5 LSU win in the Baton Rouge Regional in the original Alex Box Stadium.
LSU IN NCAA TOURNAMENT
LSU is in the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight season and for the 35th time overall. The Tigers have the second-highest all-time NCAA tournament winning percentage (.700, 163-70). LSU has hosted 26 prior NCAA Regionals at Alex Box Stadium. The Tigers are 105-27 (.795) all-time record in NCAA regional games, including an 86-17 (.835) mark in home regional games and a 19-10 (.655) record in regional games on the road. LSU has won its home regional 22 times.
STATS
LSU: No. 1 in the nation in shutouts pitched (9); No. 2 in on-base percentage (.438), No. 3 in strikeouts pitched per nine innings (11.6), No. 4 in home runs (117), runs scored (540), hit-by-pitch (121) and scoring average (9.3 runs per game), No. 5 in slugging percentage (.559) and No. 8 in walks received (344); and hits allowed per nine innings (7.64).
The Tigers are LSU is No. 1 in the SEC in nine offensive categories – batting average (.311), slugging percentage (.559), on-base percentage (.438), runs (540), hits (604), RBI (494), total bases (1,087), hit-by-pitch (121) and sacrifice flies (34). LSU is No. 2 in the SEC in home runs (117) and plate appearances (2,458).
TULANE: The Green Wave are hitting .250 as a team with 81 home runs and 62 steals in 85 attempts. The Tulane pitching staff has a 7.00 cumulative ERA, and has recorded 531 strikeouts in 503.2 innings.
STARS
LSU
CF DYLAN CREWS: Voted by league coaches as 2023 SEC Player of the Year, All-SEC first team and All-SEC Defensive team and a Collegiate Baseball first-team All-American, he's s No. 2 in the nation in on-base percentage (.567); No. 2 in runs scored (82); No. 7 in batting average (.420) and No. 10 in walks (58)
,P PAUL SKENES: Voted by league coaches as 2023 SEC Pitcher of the Year and All-SEC first team and Collegiate Baseball newspaper National Player of the Year and a first team All-American, he's No. 1 in the nation in strikeouts (167), strikeouts per nine innings (16.64) and WHIP (0.79), No. 3 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.82), No. 4 in ERA (1.89) and No. 6 in hits allowed per nine innings (5.38)
3B TOMMY WHITE: Voted by league coaches All-SEC first team and named a Collegiate Baseball first-team All-American, he's is No. 2 in the nation in RBI per game (1.72), and he is No. 3 in the nation in total RBI (91).
TULANE
OF TEO BANKS: Was named Most Valuable Player of last week’s AAC Tournament, he's batting .303 with 11 doubles, one triple, 18 homers and 51 RBI .