LSU baseball crushes Oregon State in regional final, advances to NCAA Super Regional
BATON ROUGE – LSU baseball is moving on.
The No. 1 seed Tigers took down No. 2 seed Oregon State in the final round of the Baton Rouge Regional on Monday 13-7, making it the second time in three seasons that LSU will play in the NCAA Super Regionals.
With LSU (46-15) also being the No. 5 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers will also get to host their first super regional since 2019.
Much maligned throughout the second half of the season, LSU's pitching was exceptional on Monday. Starter Riley Cooper and relievers Nate Ackenhausen and Griffin Herring held the Beaver to just five hits until the ninth inning.
A pair of two-run home runs from Oregon State (41-20) kept the Beavers within distance through the middle third innings. But it wasn't enough to keep up with LSU's offense which – after scoring four runs in the fourth inning, two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth – put up five runs in the seventh inning to pull away with an eight-run lead.
LSU will face the winner of Monday evening's matchup between Kentucky and Indiana in the Baton Rouge Super Regional at a later time and date this week.
Josh Pearson breaks through
Among the more overlooked moments in Sunday's win for LSU was Josh Pearson's triple in the fourth inning.
Not only was it LSU's first extra-base hit of the day, but it also set up Dylan Crews' two-run home run that cut the Tigers' deficit from three to one.
Apparently, Pearson's triple on Sunday was the start of a trend. He tripled again on Monday, also in the fourth inning, but this time drove in two runs in the process to double LSU's lead from two to four.
Despite not starting for most of the year, Pearson became one of LSU's most valuable players in the regional.
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Back-to-back... back-to-back?
Hayden Travinski and Cade Beloso's back-to-back home runs on Sunday were crucial in LSU's victory, as the two solo home runs turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead.
Well, history repeated itself on Monday, as Travinski and Beloso hit back-to-back home runs again to extend LSU's lead back up to four runs in the fifth inning.
Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball advances to NCAA Super Regional, beat Oregon State
