LSU breezes to five-run lead, hangs on for 6-3 CWS win over Tennessee

LSU pitcher Paul Skenes did Paul Skeens things, striking out 12 while the Tigers’ scored five runs in the first seven innings.

Tigers’ right fielder Brayden Jobert sizzled with homer, a triple and double.

And the only reason those things mattered was reliever Riley Cooper got the game’s final four outs, preserving LSU’s 6-3 College World Series win over Tennessee Saturday night in Omaha.

The fifth-seeded Tigers (49-15) advanced to a Monday 6 p.m. date vs. No. 1 seed Wake Forest, a 3-2 winner over No. 8 seed Stanford earlier Saturday.

"Poise, competitiveness, winner, all of the above," LSU head coach Jay Johnson said of Cooper. "That's like four or five good outings in-a-row. Sometimes it's not about spin rate, it's not about velocity. It's about winning pitching and Riley's doing a lot of winning pitching."

Cooper came into play after LSU freshman reliever Gavin Guidry replaced Skenes with two outs in the top of the eighth with the Tigers leading 5-1.

Guidry immediately hung a curve ball in the sweet spot of center fielder Hunter Ensley, who cracked a two-run homer to cut the Tigers’ lead to 5-3.

Cooper, LSU’s reliever with the most NCAA tourney experience, entered and got the Tigers out of the inning. After UT left field Jared Dickey was ruled safe in a replay review on an infield single, cleanup hitter Christian Moore struck out looking.

Following Jobert leading off the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer for LSU’s final run, Cooper got two quick outs in the Vols' ninth before UT first baseman Blake Burke got on base on Tigers’ shortstop Jordan Thompson’s fielding error.

Burke moved to second on a balk, but Cooper ended the game by spearing UT right fielder Christian Scott’s liner on a 3-2 pitch.

The Vols (43-21) felt like they had a fighting chance once Skeens left the game. Because for 7.2 innings, the junior transfer from Air Force paralyzed UT with a full arsenal of pitches.

"At different points, I had all four pitches working," said Skenes, who now has 200 strikeouts on the season, two shy of the NCAA, SEC and LSU record set by Ben McDonald in 1989. "You have to look at their lineup, but you know what's working for me and I went out and made pitches. I threw what they weren't expecting at times and it worked pretty well."

Until UT right fielder Christian Scott's one-out double in the eighth, the Vols hadn't had base-runner reach second base off Skenes.

"Paul's really good," Tennessee designated hitter Griffin Merritt said. "There's no other way to put it. You combine just the arm talent that he has and the pitch repertoire that he has and he gets to be a pretty tough at-bat. And he was on his game tonight. He was executing his game plan."

While Skenes handcuffed the Vols for almost eight innings, LSU hitters pecked away at seven UT pitchers on a staff ranked second nationally behind Wake Forest in earned run average.

The Tigers had 10 hits, five for extra bases including a solo second-inning homer by second baseman Gavin Dugas, Jobert's trifecta of a fourth-inning double/a sixth-inning RBI triple/an eighth-inning solo homer and center fielder Dylan Crews' seventh-inning double.

"We were just focused on the plan that we had before the game and slowing ourselves down, not getting too anxious, because you know it's an unbelievable environment -- 20-something thousand people there," Jobert said. "So just taking our breaths and focusing on our plan."

Dugas got the Tigers on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second. He yanked UT starting pitcher Andrew Lindsey’s one-out 2-1 pitch into the left field bleachers for a 412-foot solo homer and a 1-0 lead.

"Our game plan was to get balls up with the guy (Lindsey)," Dugas said. "He had a lot of sink, a lot of run. The only way to be successful was to see him over the plate, and fortunately I was able to spit on two balls and see one ball up. And I was lucky enough to put a good swing on a good ball."

LSU extended its edge to 2-0 in the third on a first baseman Tre’ Morgan ground out RBI. Left fielder Josh Pearson and Crews hit consecutive singles to right field and advanced on back-to-back ground outs to Lindsay by third baseman Tommy White and Morgan, the latter scoring Pearson.

Tennessee turned to fifth-year reliever Seth Helverson to open the LSU fifth. He retired the Tigers in order, but he was done six batters into the LSU sixth.

LSU catcher Hayden Travinski walked on a 3-2 pitch. After designated hitter Cade Beloso popped out, Travinski advanced to second on a wild pitch during an at-bat in which in Dugas struck out for the second out.

But in statistically LSU’s highest scoring inning cumulatively this season, the Tigers struck for two runs within two swings of the bat.

Jobert launched a RBI triple off the bottom of the right center field, scoring Travinski. Two pitches later, Thompson rocketed an RBI single off the glove of UT shortstop Maui Ahuna, scoring Jobert for a 4-0 lead.

After Kirby Connell, UT’s third reliever of the contest forced Pearson to ground out to end the inning, Tennessee opened the LSU seventh with reliever No. 4 Camden Sewell.

He was greeted by Crews dropping hit into shallow right field that became a double when UT’s Scott couldn’t hold on to a diving catch. White’s single advanced Crews to third and Morgan’s sacrifice fly RBI to deep center easily scored Crews for a 5-0 cushion.

Skenes got two out deep into the Tennessee eighth when he gave up his only run. Ahuna slapped a two-out RBI single, scoring Scott who had doubled.

It was the last of Skenes’ 123 pitches.

Guidry entered and lasted one disastrous pitch that brought unneeded drama from LSU’s viewpoint.

But Johnson turned to Cooper, who transferred to LSU a year ago from Arizona when the Tigers hired AU head coach Johnson to replace the retired Paul Mainieri.

Cooper, who struggled early in the season, settled the Tigers as he has done as of late to nail down the win against a UT team that fought to the final out.

"We got beat tonight,' Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. "I thought our guys played all nine innings. Maybe their coach (himself) could have managed the game a little bit better and put us in a better situation to find a way to win."

That seemed impossible the way Skenes pitched and the offensive patience the Tigers showed at the plate.

"I thought we played great, clean baseball on both sides," Johnson said. "Took really good at-bats, and then we had some, like I said, some of our guys were guys tonight."