In what he knew could be his last at-bat ever at Alex Box Stadium, Dylan Crews was nervous.
He had walked four times in his first five at-bats, but this time, the bases were loaded in the top of the ninth, and LSU held a narrow college baseball lead.
He hopped backwards, dodging a wild pitch that allowed an LSU run to score in the ninth inning. Two pitches later, he roped a ball through the left-side gap for a two-run double to blank the bases, capping off LSU's 8-3 victory over Kentucky in Game 2 of the Baton Rouge super regional. With the win, the Tigers now book a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for their first College World Series appearance since 2017.
"I was really able to control myself and control my breathing, but it didn't help that my walk-up song was playing," Crews said.
Crews stopped just before reaching second base, watching his foot step on it for what he knew then would be his last time at Alex Box Stadium. He lifted the chest of his gray jersey showing "Tigers" and placed his hands in a heart shape above his head.
"I knew it was going to happen before it happened," LSU coach Jay Johnson said. "It's one of those things where you're like— this is how it's supposed to be."
But Crews did not do it alone. Starting right-hander Ty Floyd’s outing was short, but not at the fault of a rain delay like the previous week. While he kept the damage at a minimum, the Wildcats were finding success in taking the right pitches out of the park. That began in the first inning when Jackson Gray blasted a ball on a 1-1 count to score the first run of the game, and the first run of the weekend for Kentucky.
There were more runs to be cashed, Floyd gave up a single to Jase Felker, but recovered by striking out Devin Burkes swinging after a mound visit. Felker stole second, then Emilien Pitre singled to put runners at the corners. Pitre advanced to scoring position after a flyout by Hunter Giliam, but nothing came of the two runners as Floyd struck out Ryan Waldschmidt to end the frame.
Floyd worked through a scoreless second backed by his defense. Shortstop Jordan Thompson gloved a ball in the grass moving away from first base and threw a ball across his body to beat the runner. In the end, Floyd exited the game after 3⅓ innings and throwing 82 pitches. He allowed three earned runs on seven hits, all three of those runs were solo homers, including Gray’s in the first, then Devin Burkes' and Nolan McCarthy's in the third and fourth, respectively.
LSU was quick to jump to an early lead off of starting right-hander Austin Strickland, but the bats fell quiet after the Wildcats turned to their bullpen.
The Tigers evened the score in the second when it loaded the bases and Crews grounded into a fielder’s choice, which scored Gavin Dugas, who had been hit by a pitch at the top of the frame.
The middle of the Tigers’ order then tattooed Strickland in the third when it scored three runs on three straight hits.
Tre’ Morgan led off with a double off the wall in left center and Hayden Travinski singled to put runners at the corners. Cade Beloso brought them both home when he cranked a three-run home run over the fence in right center, pointing to the crowd and beating his chest as he rounded the bases to meet his teammates behind the plate.
"I was literally just trying to hit a flyball to center field — trying to not hit into a double play, gotta pitch over the middle of the plate and just smashed it," Beloso said.
Strickland got Dugas to ground out and struck out Brayden Jobert swinging, but walked Thompson and Josh Pearson before right-hander Mason Moore came on in relief.
Moore was the Wildcats’ best reliever, coming into the game with a 1.95 ERA through 50⅔ innings.
He faced Crews first, walking him, then gave up an RBI single to Tommy White with the bases loaded, allowing the Tigers to extend their lead to 5-1. But that was one of just two hits he’d give up in the 4⅓ innings he worked.
LSU's bullpen matched Moore's effort. Left-hander Riley Cooper steadied the Wildcats through three innings, allowing only two hits and walking one while striking out two.
"If I had to say we had a crutch all year — it would be the bullpen and it was good to show that that's not our crutch," Cooper said.
Right-hander Gavin Guidry, who came in after Cooper, inherited his runner, Pitre, in the bottom of the seventh. Guidry allowed a single to center by Giliam. Pitre stole third, then Guidry struck out Waldschmidt.
Kentucky turned to Reuben Church, a pinch hitter for Chase Stanke. Church roped a ball that, at first, seemed just fair down the left-field line. That would've put the Wildcats within one run of the Tigers. But after the ball was ruled foul, Guidry struck Church out to strand the Wildcat runners going into the eighth inning.
LSU drew two walks off of right-hander Darren Williams in the eighth, but was unable to cash in. But it responded with three runs in the ninth off the wild pitch and Crews' RBI double.
Guidry, working his final inning in relief in the ninth, got Burkes to fly out, then nodded his head up and down to the crowd, circling the mound when he fired a third strike past Pitre. The final out was a grounder to White, who fired to Morgan to bring a swarm of LSU players from the dugout spraying Gatorade bottles to tackle him.
"We don't have a lot of signs or sayings up, there's a few, but if you walk out of the hallway down into the dugout the big one just says, 'one pitch at a time,' and what we've tried to get them to do is just master living in the moment," Johnson said. "Everybody knew what was on the line today, but it feels so much better to accomplish it."
