LSU baseball: Dylan Crews' final at-bat at Alex Box Stadium reflects storied career
BATON ROUGE – Dylan Crews walked up to the plate in the ninth inning on Sunday knowing that this probably was the last time.
His LSU baseball teammates knew it. Kentucky knew it. All 12,640 rabid LSU fans in attendance at Game 2 of the Baton Rouge Super Regional knew it while clapping along to his signature walk-up song, Calabria 2008.
This was it: The final at-bat at Alex Box Stadium for perhaps the greatest player ever to wear an LSU jersey.
"It was going through my mind a little bit," Crews said. "You know, my emotions were through the roof. But ... with all of my training, with all of our mental coaches, I was really able to control my breath."
The gravity of that finality equaled the importance of the moment.
LSU had a three-run lead, with two runners in scoring position and one out. A hit from Crews would almost certainly hand the Tigers a five-run lead and place them on the doorstep of going to the College World Series for the first time since 2017.
As he almost always does, Crews worked the count to his favor, 3-1, before finally getting a pitch he liked – a 94 mph fastball low and inside. He turned on the pitch immediately, lining it into left field and allowing both runners to score.
"It's one of the best moments in my coaching career," LSU coach Jay Johnson said.
Crews' hit was the final offense of the night, as Gavin Guidry retired the Wildcats in order in the ninth inning to seal the 8-3 win and the Tigers' trip to Omaha.
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"He means so much to me and he's so special and nobody deserved that more than him," Johnson said. "We're not here without him."
As Crews said after the game, "the job's not finished." LSU will still need to win at least five more games in Omaha to become national champions.
But for now, they'll celebrate. And celebrate in large part because of the greatness of No. 3 and his final shining moment at Alex Box Stadium.
"A large reason I came here is because I got to coach No. 3 for two years, and that's the absolute truth," Johnson said.
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's Dylan Crews exits Alex Box Stadium with memorable swing
