Skenes throws a 12-strikeout complete game in NCAA tourney opening win

When LSU head coach Jay Johnson decided to start SEC Pitcher of the Year Paul Skenes in Friday afternoon’s NCAA Baton Rouge Regional opener vs. Tulane representing the first 40-loss team ever to play in a regional, his respect for the Green Wave was obvious.

Skenes, college baseball’s strikeout leader, took care of business.

He struck out 12 batters, walked none and gave up seven hits and a pair of runs in a 124-pitch complete game 7-2 victory that advanced the No. 5 national seed Tigers to Saturday’s 8 p.m. game vs. Oregon State.

The Beavers (40-18) blasted Sam Houston 18-2 in Friday's second game. Tulane and Sam Houston play in Saturday's losers bracket elimination game at 2 p.m.

"We're now in postseason play and I felt good about what he could do," Johnson said of his decision to start Skenes. "He impacts us winning the game and there's other value in doing what he did to help our other pitchers the rest of the way."

After feeling out of sorts in last Thursday's 5-4 SEC tourney loss to Arkansas when he struggled with command of his slider in his worst outing of the season, Skenes was eager to take the ball first in the Tigers' first home regional since 2019.

"I did a lot better job of executing my pitches this week than last week," Skenes said. "They (Tulane) came out swinging, which allowed me to have some shorter innings as well."

Skenes was also backed by superb errorless fielding, including spectacular catches by shortstop Jordan Thompson and Brayden Jobert.

And count Skenes in that number when he speared between his legs a line drive off the bat of Tulane right fielder Jake LaPrairie in the fifth inning to start a double play.

"I just got tired of them hitting the ball up the middle," Skenes said of his catch.

LSU center fielder Dylan Crews said he was lined up perfectly behind Skenes on the play..

"That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life," Crews said.

Against five Tulane pitchers, LSU (44-15) banged out 11 hits and put 18 runners on base, including at least one in every inning but the sixth and seventh.

LSU couldn’t get the kill shot necessary to put away Tulane (19-41). The only extra base hits were RBI doubles by catcher Hayden Travinski in the first inning and Crews in the second inning.

Crews went 3 for 5, tying his most ever in an NCAA tourney game. Travinski (2 for 5), designated hitter Cade Beloso (2 for 5) and shortstop Jordan Thompson (2 for 3) were the other Tigers with multiple hits.

Yet LSU found other ways to score, executing bunts, lofting sacrifice flies and hitting ground ball outs to key spots.

The Tigers scratched out six of their runs in four of the first five innings, scoring two runs each on ground balls by left fielder Josh Pearson and right fielder Brayden Jobert and on sacrifice flies by second baseman Gavin Dugas and Pearson.

"It was good baseball," Johnson said. "A couple of sacrifice bunts, a couple of sacrifice flies, two ground balls to the middle of the field with a man on third and less than two outs. Different games require different things. You've got to be able to win any type of game. You've got to be functional and we were definitely functional today.

"Playoff baseball is different. Playing with a lead helps. When you have a pitcher (Skenes) like that on the mound, sometimes a 4-run lead can feel like an eight-run deficit (for the opposition)."

LSU led 6-0 when Skenes was touched for a two-run homer by Tulane designated hitter Brian Lambert in the top of the seventh.

Skenes retired Tulane center fielder Teo Banks with two runners on base to end the eighth inning. The crowd, sensing it was his final inning, gave him a standing ovation.

But after LSU added its last run in the bottom of the eighth, Skenes skipped out to the mound for the ninth inning to finish what he started.

"There wasn't a whole lot of haggling (with Johnson)," said Skenes of the decision to let him finish the game,. He (Johnson) asked me if I wanted it and I said `Yeah."

Johnson said Skenes' reduced pitch count in his last outing vs. Arkansas -- 88 in 3.2 innings -- plus having an extra day of rest led to giving Skenes the green light to close out the Green Wave

.With the Tigers’ faithful chanting “Paull Skeeenes, Paull Skeemes,” he retired the Green Wave three up and three down.

"He's a horse," Tulane head coach Jay Ulhman said of Skenes. "He uses all quadrants of the plate, in and out and up, and spins the curveball. And he's a big, tall glass of water. When you're big like that you create angle and at times makes it difficult to square guys up.

"And when you have the numbers that you have and you've won and you're used to doing that, you tend to have a different kind of confidence and swagger about you."

Three of LSU first five batters of the game produced hits. But the fact Tulane starter and former University High star Dylan Carmouche forced Tigers’ first baseman Tre’ Morgan into a double play grounder and escaped the first inning allowing just one run for a 1-0 LSU lead on Tigers’ Travinski’s RBI double was a small victory for the Green Wave.

LSU returned the double play favor in the Tulane second with one out and Green Wave third baseman Simon Baumgardt on first base after a leadoff single.

Tulane right fielder Jake LaPrairie drove Skenes’ 1-0 pitch deep, Jobert made a leaping catch bouncing off the wall. He threw to Morgan at first to complete an easy double play.

The Tigers increased their cushion to 3-0 in the second inning on an RBI ground out by Pearson and Crews sharply-hit RBI double that hugged the left field line.

But Carmouche dodged serious damage with Morgan’s bases-full inning-ending third out liner to left field.

LSU opened the bottom of the third with consecutive singles by Travinski and Beloso. Then, Carmouche recorded three straight outs including Jobert’s RBI grounder to limit the Tigers to one run.

LSU’s margin grew to 6-0 in the fifth inning. Immediately after Carmouche’s 76-pitch day ended with two men on base, the Tigers scored a pair of runs on RBI sacrifice flies by Dugas and Pearson.

OREGON STATE 18, SAM HOUSTON 2: The Beavers of the Pac-12 hammered a season-best 22 hits, including four homers and three doubles off five Sam Houston pitchers in Friday's nightcap.

OSU left fielder Kyle Turley had two doubles and a home run as he drove in six runs. Center fielder Sam McDowell also had six RBIs with a 4 for 4 plate performance and scored four runs.

Trent Sellers, OSU's usual Friday night starting pitcher in league play, improved his record to 7-5. He went 7.1 innings, allowing two earned runs and three hits while striking out five and walking one.

LSU-OREGON STATE SERIES HISTORY: LSU is 4-3 vs. OSU, all of which have been NCAA tourney games.

In the 2012 Baton Rouge Regionals, LSU beat OSU 7-1 and 6-5 to advance to the Super Regional which the Tigers lost at home to Stony Brook in three games.

In the 2017 College World Series, Oregon State rolled to a 13-1 victory before the Tigers came back through the losers' bracket to record 3-1 and 6-1 wins over the Beavers to advance to the championship series in which Florida swept LSU. Oregon State finished the season 56-6.

A year later in the 2018 Corvallis Regional, LSU was destroyed by OSU 14-1 and 12-0.

Current LSU head coach Jay Johnson was Arizona's head coach from 2016 to 2021 when he was 7-8 in Pac-12 play vs. Oregon State.

Also, current LSU reliever Riley Cooper, who transferred to the Tigers last season from Arizona, pitched once in 2021 against OSU in a 12-4 win. He pitched 0.2 innings, striking out the two batters he faced on seven pitches.