OMAHA, Neb. — Baseball is a game of inches.
And no play better represented those inches than the ball Luis Hernandez hit in the bottom of the ninth inning on Wednesday night in LSU’s 6-5 victory over Arkansas.
With LSU trailing 5-3, the senior catcher walked up to the plate with runners on first and second and two outs. Hernandez, who had been seeing off-speed pitches all night, was prepared for freshman left-hander Cole Gibler’s changeup after taking an off-speed pitch in the dirt for ball one.
“I was looking for off-speed because all day they threw me off-speed,” Hernandez said, “changeups and (a) slider in.”
The changeup is what he got on the next pitch, and Hernandez took advantage of it, roping a 104-mph line drive to left fielder Charles Davalan. The play initially seemed like a routine play for Davalan, but the sophomore hesitated and took an awkward dive toward the ball as the sinking drive ricocheted off his right shoulder and into the left-field corner at Charles Schwab Field.
The drop, which was ruled a double, allowed two runs to score and tied the game at 5-5.
“Whenever he didn’t grab it, I started running,” Hernandez said.
Four pitches and a pitching change later, junior Jared Jones — who had homered earlier in the night — shot a single up the middle against redshirt sophomore right-hander Aiden Jimenez that went off the glove of second baseman Cam Kozeal and into center field to allow Hernandez to score for the walk-off victory.
“They brought in Jimenez. He’s a great pitcher,” Jones said. “Got to respect his slider and was able to stay on it and do just enough to get it over the second baseman’s head. That’s about it.”
LSU had snatched the victory from the jaws of defeat. With the win, the Tigers will face Coastal Carolina in the College World Series final beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.
“I said this literally probably two years ago to the day, the walk-off homer, Tommy against Wake Forest,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “I felt something in my body I’ve never felt before. Greatest moment in my life. It now has a tie for first.”
Chaos reigned throughout the final innings Wednesday.
With the score tied 3-3 in the top of the ninth, and with redshirt sophomore right-hander Chase Shores on the mound for LSU, Arkansas put two men in scoring position with one out after a double from third baseman Brent Iredale.
The runners prompted LSU to turn to junior right-hander Jacob Mayers, who allowed a two-run single on the first pitch he threw to center fielder Justin Thomas that turned a 3-3 game into a 5-3 Arkansas lead.
After Thomas’ single, Arkansas seemed poised to force a do-or-die rematch with the Tigers on Thursday. Gibler struck out freshman pinch-hitter John Pearson to start the bottom of the ninth and, two batters later, forced a ground ball to shortstop Wehiwa Aloy that appeared to be a potential double play with runners on first and second.
But instead of throwing the ball to second base to start the turn, Aloy tossed the ball to third base for the force out. His decision allowed Hernandez to walk up to the plate with two outs.
“The way it all turned out, I guess I would have,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said when asked whether he would have liked to see Aloy attempt the double play. “I haven’t talked to him about it. I think he felt he moved too far to his right for Cam to turn it. I don’t know.”
Jones’ heroics on Wednesday began in the bottom of the eighth inning. With LSU trailing 3-2, he blasted a solo home run to right-center field to tie the game. The homer was his 22nd of the year and was hit in almost the same spot as his blast Monday against UCLA.
Jones’ homers are LSU’s only long balls in Omaha through three contests.
“I hadn’t been seeing (right-hander Gabe Gaeckle) very well this week … it was all on sliders,” Jones said. “My approach is always to be on time for a fastball. I was lucky enough to get one in the zone and put a good swing on it to tie the game there.”
Jones’ homer was preceded by two runs from Arkansas in the top of the eighth inning. Facing Shores, Arkansas quickly loaded the bases with one out after two singles and a hit by pitch.
The Tigers nearly escaped the jam with an inning-ending double play, but Jones dropped junior second baseman Daniel Dickinson’s throw from second base, which allowed two runs to score.
Instead of escaping the inning with a 2-1 lead, the Tigers trailed 3-2.
“What a week for Chase. I mean, he did what he needed to do,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t complete the double play right there.”
LSU junior right-hander Zac Cowan earned the start and had arguably his best outing of the season when the Tigers needed him the most. He tossed a season-high 5⅓ innings and threw a season-high 84 pitches, allowing just one earned run on four hits. He pounded the strike zone, per usual, and struck out six batters.
The only mistake Cowan made came in the fourth inning when he allowed a solo home run to catcher Ryder Helfrick.
“It means the world when I have the trust from the coaching staff, like I do, and the defense behind me,” Cowan said. “And the second half of the season didn’t obviously go as planned, but it’s (about) going out there and competing every time I’m out there.”
Cowan exited for redshirt sophomore right-hander Jaden Noot after surrendering a one-out single to right fielder Logan Maxwell in the sixth. A stolen base and a wild pitch allowed Maxwell to reach third base with two outs, but Noot struck out Kozeal with a high fastball to end the inning.
Noot’s work allowed LSU to grab the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. With runners on second and third and one out, Arkansas elected to walk senior outfielder Josh Pearson to load the bases. Johnson then countered by pinch-hitting Jake Brown for Chris Stanfield, and the sophomore delivered with a two-run single for a 2-1 LSU edge.
The experience LSU had accumulated against Gaeckle on Saturday and in the regular season a month earlier contributed to Brown and Jones’ success against the top Arkansas arm on Wednesday, Brown said.
“We knew that he was going to be the guy that they went to in a tough situation like that,” Brown said. “And I was just happy that my name was able to get called and I was able to help us win.”
Noot forced a groundout to start the seventh inning, but his night came to a close after that. He was replaced by Shores, who struck out the next two batters to maintain LSU’s lead.
“That’s a very unfair line score there,” Johnson said, referring to the three earned runs the 6-foot-8 Shores allowed in two innings of work.
LSU created a few opportunities early on that it couldn’t capitalize on. Freshman Derek Curiel led off the first inning with a double but was stranded at third base. Jones singled to start the second, but LSU couldn’t drive him in or junior Daniel Dickinson, who was intentionally walked with two outs.
Through five innings against junior left-hander Landon Beidelschies, the Tigers were held scoreless. They had just two hits, and the only walk belonged to Dickinson.
Jones was the only Tiger with multiple hits on Wednesday. LSU was just 3 for 18 with runners on base, but its attack came up clutch with two outs, going 5 for 12 in those situations.
“Just excited to prepare for a couple more days and enjoy being together and go compete for a championship, because I get to coach guys like this,” Johnson said, referring to Cowan, Jones and Hernandez at the news conference stage. “They’re all across the team.”
