Tanks a lot! White's walk-off two-run homer sends LSU to the CWS finals

When LSU third baseman Tommy White walked to the plate with no outs and center fielder Dylan Crews on first base in the bottom of the 11th inning in a scoreless College World Series pitchers duel, he saw a familiar face enter the game.

It was Wake Forest reliever Camden Minacci, a Tampa, Fla.-area native as is White.

“I played with him and against him growing up my whole life,” White said. “He's one of my closest friends.”

White whacked Minacci’s first pitch over the left field wall for a walk-off two-run homer and a 2-0 victory sending the six-time national champion Tigers into the school’s first CWS finals series since 2017.

After starting pitcher Paul Skenes threw eight shutout innings vs. the top-seeded Deacons followed by three scoreless innings from reliever Thatcher Hurd, one swing from the sophomore North Carolina State transfer nicknamed “Tanks” ended one of the best CWS games ever played.

Six pitchers – two for LSU and four for WFU – combined to allow just eight hits and two runs, striking out 21 with six walks.

Skenes and Hurd faced a combined 39 batters, allowed just three hits in LSU’s second shutout of the week, struck out 10 and walked two.

“The best-pitched college baseball game I've ever seen from both sides,” LSU second-year head coach Jay Johnson said. "You might see four pitchers that were on that mound tonight from both teams that will pitch in major league all-star games.

“And a hat tip to Coach (Tom) Walter and Wake Forest. We just slayed a giant tonight. And that was special.”

White’s 23rd homer of the season produced his 99th and 100th RBIs and advanced the Tigers (52-16) into the best two-of-three games championship series against fellow SEC member Florida starting Saturday at 6 p.m. The Tigers, who didn’t play Florida this season, lost two straight games to the Gators in the 2017 CWS championship series finals.

LSU battled out of the loser’s bracket to get to the 2017 finals and followed the same path again. After losing 3-2 to Wake Forest Monday night, the Tigers eliminated Tennessee 5-0 Tuesday night and then handed WFU (53-12) its first two consecutive losses of the season starting with a 5-2 win Wednesday night.

That allowed Johnson to bring back Skenes, the junior transfer from Air Force who’s college baseball’s strikeout leader, on four days rest. He threw 123 pitches in 7.2 innings in LSU’s 6-3 CWS opening win over Tennessee last Saturday.

“There was no doubt in my mind,” Skenes said of Johnson’s decision to give him his 19th start of the season. “There wasn't a whole lot of conversation. I knew everyone would do everything in their power to get me ready.”

The expected duel between Skenes and WFU’s Rhett Lowder, ranked second and fifth nationally in ERA respectively, met the lofty expectations.

Skenes allowed just two hits, striking out nine and walking one while easily breaking the SEC and LSU season strikeout record of 202 set by Ben McDonald in 1989. The Deacons didn’t get a runner to third base until the eighth when a brilliant play by LSU first baseman Tre’ Morgan cutting down a WFU runner at home plate for the second out helped Skenes out of his only jam.

WFU’s Lowder matched Skenes pitch-for-pitch. He hurled seven scoreless innings, giving up three hits while striking out six and walking two. Lowder never allowed an LSU runner past second base.

“This is probably the best game I've ever played in,” Lowder said. “Wish we could have come out on the other side, but credit to LSU. They're a good team. Paul Skenes is a really good pitcher. He's very impressive to watch.”

The most serious scoring threat before the game went to extra innings came in the WFU eighth as Skenes gutted through his final inning on the mound.

It was at that point Morgan gained sweet revenge for being tagged out at the plate trying to score the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of Monday’s 3-2 loss to WFU.

Skenes, already over 100 pitches, walked Deacons’ second baseman Justin Johnson to open the top of the eighth. Catcher Bennett Lee’s sacrifice bunt out moved Johnson to second base.

Then, Skenes struck out WFU first baseman Jack Winnay but LSU catcher Alex Milazzo couldn’t scoop Skenes’ slider in the dirt. The wild pitch sent Johnson to third base and Winnay got to first.

Morgan, sensing a one-out squeeze bunt from WFU nine-hole hitter shortstop Marek Houston, sprinted toward home plate as did WFU’s Johnson on the third base line as Houston bunted Skenes’ 0-1 pitch.

“It was a pretty good bunt,” WFU’s Walter said. “Give credit to Tre' Morgan, he was straight vacating on that ball. It's a great defensive play by a great defensive first baseman.”

Morgan fielded it cleanly -- "We've worked on that bunt coverage from the first week of practice," Morgan said -- and quickly flipped to Milazzo -- "We've practiced that play a million times," Milazzo said -- who instantly turned to his left and tagged out a diving Johnson for the second out.

“As soon as I saw the bunt, like, the angle of the bat, I knew he was going to first,” White said. “I didn't see Tre'. I was like `Oh, God, they're going to score.’ Then Tre’ came flying out of nowhere and Milazzo put a great tag on, so that was pretty awesome.”

Skenes’ final throw in his 120-pitch performance to WFU center fielder Tommy Hawke was lined to LSU left fielder Josh Pearson for the third and final out.

WFU reliever Cole Roland opened the bottom of the eighth and lasted two batters. Pearson drew a leadoff walk and Milazzo laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that moved Pearson to second base.

Roland exited and WFU reliever No. 2 Michael Massey entered. He struck out Crews, issued an intentional walk to White and then got Morgan to fly out to WFU left fielder Lucas Costello.

Hurd, who gave up three hits and the game-winning run in 3.1 innings in Monday’s loss to the Deacons, then replaced Skenes to start the WFU ninth.

It took Hurd nine pitches to retire WFU in order on two ground balls to LSU second baseman Gavin Dugas and a liner to right fielder Brayden Jobert.

Massey set the Tigers down quickly in the bottom of the ninth. He struck out Dugas looking, forced designated hitter Cade Beloso to pop out to third base and blew a 3-2 pitch past Jobert for a swinging strikeout that sent the game to extra innings.

Hurd and Massey retired the sides in the 10th inning, but Hurd worked himself into trouble in the top of the 11th after getting two quick outs.

Hawke beat out an infielder nubber for a single and stole second. Costello walked to put runners at the corners with WFU third baseman and the ACC’s all-time leading home run hitter Brock Wilken coming to the plate.

“I was going to go at the strike zone, trust my defense, throw everything with full conviction,” Hurd said.

The Tigers’ faithful packing the stadium exhaled when Wilken flied out to Crews to end the threat.

Crews’ single to open the bottom of the 11th resulted in WFU changing pitchers from Massey to Minacci.

Minacci, who had a team-leading eight saves as the Deacons’ closer, put his first pitch in White’s sweet spot.

" I thought a heater was coming," White said. "But I was very amped up and I saw a slider that was up. And I put my bat head to it. That was about it."

As soon as the ball rocketed off White’s bat, everyone in Charles Schwab Field knew one of the best games in CWS history was indeed. . . .history.

“The expectations coming into this game with that matchup were off the charts, and both teams delivered on that,” Walter said. “And that's near impossible to do.

“There weren't any mistakes. We made one bad pitch and Tommy White didn't miss it. The key to getting him out is to be out of the zone. And that's what the plan was there in the last inning, and we just missed center cut. When you miss center cut on Tommy White, he's going to punish you.

“We didn't get the big hit and they did.”