The moons are aligning for the Tigers in Baton Rouge and Athens

Three swings of the bat seemed it was all LSU was going to need Saturday night to handle pesky Southern Miss in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional.

Until the Golden Eagles’ one mighty swing.

The Tigers’ answer to USM’s Matthew Guidry’s stunning game-tying grand slam off ace LSU reliever Zack Hess in the seventh inning was scoring four unanswered runs in the final two innings to stumble across the finish line an 8-4 winner in Alex Box Stadium.

"I was really hoping that our offense was going to give me a lead again," Hess said, "because I really didn't want the people of Baton Rouge to burn down my house."

Thanks to LSU catcher Saul Garza's two-run single in the Tigers' three-run eighth, all the supposed torches that Hess thought were meant for his abode were extinguished. And he also did his part by retiring eight of the last 11 batters, including striking out all-time USM home run leader Matt Wallner to end the game.

While LSU (39-24) moved into Sunday night’s finals against the winner of Sunday afternoon’s elimination match between the Golden Eagles (39-20) and Arizona State (38-18), something else began to fall in place for the Tigers.

Almost 600 miles away in the Athens (Ga.) Regional, No. 2 seed Florida State advanced to Sunday night's finals by pounding No. 1 seed Georgia, 12-3. It means that Georgia now has to fight back through the losers' bracket and beat Florida State twice to win the regional.

If Florida State wins the Athens Regional and LSU can do same in the Baton Rouge Regional, it means the Tigers will host the Super Regional.

Of course, nobody in Alex Box was thinking past this game, especially when Guidry jacked his game-tying grand slam. LSU fans sat in stunned silence while USM fans celebrated wildly.

But after Hess struck out USM's No. 3 and 4 hitters to end the inning, LSU coach Paul Mainieri liked what he saw when his team came off the field.

"When the guys came to the dugout," Mainieri said, "it was really like `we've got a two-inning, no big deal, let's win these two innings,' Our guys didn''t get frustrated, they just kept banging away."

The fact the Tigers were in that situation seemed surreal because of the way LSU freshman starting pitcher Cole Henry handled USM. He allowed just two hits in five shutout innings ("I just needed to hit my spots and execute and that's all," he said), and LSU seemed in control with a 4-0 lead through six innings.

The Tigers got just enough offense – a Cade Beloso solo homer in the second inning and his RBI sacrifice fly in the sixth that was immediately followed by Zach Watson’s two-run homer – off USM starter Walker Powell and Sean Tweedy – to put them in the catbird’s seat with nine outs remaining.

But LSU’s supposed strength – its late-inning relievers – almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

After Henry’s masterpiece, reliever Todd Peterson faced eight batters in the sixth and seventh innings, allowing five base runners with two walks, two hit batters and a hit.

He couldn’t get an out in the seventh, leaving a bases loaded situation for Hess, who promptly gave up Guidry’s game-tying grand slam.

"It (the pitch) was pretty low," Guidry said, "but the pitch before made me look pretty silly. I kind of saw it better the second time around and just put a good swing on it."

But much to USM coach Scott Berry's chagrin, his team couldn't complete the comeback win.

"We didn't get the shutdown inning after that and we didn't recover," Berry said. "We didn't do enough to keep the momentum and LSU didn't let the momentum get away from them for very long."

The shame of the blown lead was it removed Henry from getting credit for the win, which he richly deserved.

Though Henry allowed five runs on five hits in 42 pitches over five innings in last week’s SEC tourney opener against South Carolina, Mainieri felt the previously injured Henry threw well enough in his first game action in more than a month to justify Sunday’s start.

Mainieri was hoping he’d get 75 to 85 pitches out of Henry, and that’s what Henry gave him – 85 pitches including 51 strikes.

Henry looked like the pre-injury Henry, opening the first inning throwing 19 pitches, including 14 strikes. He fired 14 fastballs 94 miles per hour or higher, averaging 95.7 per heater.

His only serious predicament came in his last inning when USM nine-hole hitter Storme Cooper cracked a two-out double on a 2-2 count just after Henry didn’t get a third strike call on an outside pitch from home plate umpire Tim Cirdill.

Then, Henry walked Gabe Montenegro on a 3-2 pitch, earning Henry a mound visit from Mainieri, who appeared to be rolling the dice when he left in Henry to face second baseman Guidry.

"I just told him I had confidence in him," Mainieri said. "I said to really focus on getting the batter out because it was gojng to be the last one he faced."

Henry justified Mainieri’s decision when he induced Guidry into an inning-ending popup to shortstop Josh Smith.

By the time, LSU reliever Peterson took the mound in the bottom of the sixth, the Tigers had staked him a 4-0 lead by scoring three runs in the top of the sixth off USM reliever Tweedy.

Besides Beloso’s RBI sac fly to drive home Brandt Broussard who doubled to lead off the inning, Smith’s two-run homer (his first home run after an 18-game drought) gave LSU some much needed breathing room.

In Peterson’s first mound action, he somehow escaped a one-out situation with USM runners at first and third. He got USM’s Cole Donaldson to fly out to shallow right field and then struck out Fred Franklin looking with a 3-2 fastball.

But in the Golden Eagles’ seventh, Peterson was pulled after walking USM’s Danny Lynch and then hitting consecutive batters Cooper and Montenegro with pitches to load the bases with no outs.

That left Hess, LSU’s most experienced reliever, to limit as much damage as possible. But on a 1-2 pitch and the Tigers’ home crowd anticipating a strikeout, Guidry parked a Hess pitch in the right-field stands for the jaw-dropping, game-tying grand slam.

Hess shook off the unthinkable disaster and LSU’s bats went back to work off USM relievers Hunter Stanley and Brant Blaylock, the Golden Eagles’ fourth and fifth pitchers of the night.

Garza, who has raised his batting average 109 points from .188 to. 297 in his last 18 games batting .406 in that stretch, came through with his two-run single in the eighth and then scored on Chris Reid's RBI single.

"I wasn't trying to do too much, just trying to find the barrel and drive it out on the infield to get that runner in," Garza said.

LSU added one last run in the top of the ninth when Smith doubled, stole third base and eventually scored on Blaylock’s wild pitch.

Hess closed out USM in the ninth, and all Berry could do afterward was lament lost offensive opportunities and express his admiration for LSU's pitching.

"When you see three power arms like we saw tonight with Henry, Peterson and Hess," Berry said, "it was like a new guy came in with recharged batteries."