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baseball Edit

Tigers advance to Super Regional

Greg Deichmann hit a two-run homer to cap a three-run seventh-inning and Jared Poche threw six scoreless innings in relief as LSU defeated Rice 5-2 in the championship game of the Baton Rouge Regional at The Box on Tuesday afternoon.

LSU pitcher Jared Poche' (16) celebrates with fans after defeating Rice
LSU pitcher Jared Poche' (16) celebrates with fans after defeating Rice
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

HOW THEY SCORED

Rice first inning – With one out, Grayson Lewis singled. After Ford Proctor flied out to the rightfielder, Lewis advanced to second on a wild pitch by Jake Latz. Lewis scored on a double by Connor Teykl. RICE 1, LSU 0

Rice second inning – Ryan Chandler walked and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dominic DiCaprio. After Dayne Wunderlich was hit by a pitch, Chandler scored on a single by Hunter Kopycinski. RICE 2, LSU 0

LSU seventh inning – Jake Fraley walked and went to third on a hit-and-run single by Kramer Robertson. Fraley scored and Robertson advanced to second on a sacrifice fly in foul territory to the rightfielder. Deichmann hit a home run over the centerfield fence. LSU 3, RICE 2

LSU eighth inning – Michael Papierski hit a leadoff home run over the leftfield bleachers. After Cole Freeman flied out to the centerfielder and Antoine Duplantis grounded out to the third baseman, Fraley reached on an error by first baseman Tristan Gray. Fraley stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by the catcher Kopycinski. Fraley scored on a double by Robertson. LSU 5, RICE 2

LSU MISSED SCORING OPPORTUNITIES

Fifth inning – With one out, Deichmann singled. Deichmann went to second on a ground out to the pitcher by Beau Jordan. Chris Reid popped out to the shortstop.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

A year ago at this time, Deichmann was already playing summer baseball in the Northwoods League. Deichmann was not a member of LSU’s postseason roster. On Tuesday, Deichmann delivered the game-winning against Rice in the championship game of the Baton Rouge Regional. Deichmann’s two-run homer over the centerfield fence gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead. Deichmann had singled in his previous two at-bats. Deichmann, who was selected the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, had nine hits – three home runs – and ten runs batted in in the Tigers’ four games. He was 9-for-15.

Deichmann’s comments: “I’ve probably hit more balls to leftfield this weekend as I have done all year.”

ABOUT THE HITTERS

Only Robertson and Papierski had hits besides Deichmann. Robertson had a hit-and-run single in the seventh and a two-out RBI double in the eighth. Papierski led off the eighth inning with a home run. . .Fraley scored two runs. . .Three of LSU’s hits went for extra bases. . .The Tigers stranded two runners – both in scoring position. LSU was 2-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

ABOUT THE PITCHERS

Poche did not get the start, but he was brought into the game after LSU fell behind 2-0 after two innings. Poche, who won his ninth game for the third straight season, permitted one base runner in six innings – a one-out single in the eighth by Lewis. Poche struck out six of the 19 batters he faced. Rice put a runner at second in the eighth, but Poche struck out Teykl to end the inning. . .Hunter Newman had a three-up, three-down ninth inning to record his eighth save. . .Latz got the start and gave up a run in the first. Latz threw a wild pitch which moved Lewis into scoring position. Lewis scored on Teykl’s two-out double. In the second, Latz allowed two base runners on a walk and a hit batter. . .Russell Reynolds allowed one inherited runner to score on a single by Kopycinski. Reynolds hit a batter to load the bases with two out. Robertson made a diving catch of a pop up in shallow leftfield to save two runs. . .LSU pitchers walked one and struck out eight.

NOTES

Bryce Jordan was back in the lineup as the designated hitter. He hit fourth in the batting order. . .Fraley stole his 28th base of the season in the eighth inning. He is tied with Josh Dalton for the eighth most steals by a LSU player in a single season. Fraley now has 59 career stolen bases – the seventh most for a Tigers player. He had been tied with Jeff Reboulet for seventh place. . .Rice starting pitcher Willy Amador shut out the Tigers on two hits – both by Deichmann – in the first six innings. Amador, who has an ERA above 5.00, allowed the three seventh-inning runs. . .Blake Fox, who started the Owls’ game Saturday against SLU, gave up the two eighth-inning runs. One of those runs was unearned due to an error by the first baseman Gray. . .Lewis had two of Rice’s four hits. . .Deichmann was one of four LSU players on the all-tournament team. The other honorees were Alex Lange, Robertson and Fraley. . .LSU still has failed to win just four regionals played in Baton Rouge – 1992 (Fullerton State), 1995 and 2005 (Rice) and 2014 (Houston). . .The Tigers had lost five of their last six NCAA tournament games where both teams were in a win-or-go-home situation. The one victory came against Fullerton State in last year’s College World Series. . .LSU is 45-19, while Rice finished its season at 38-24. . .The Tigers had been 0-4 against the Owls in regional games in Baton Rouge before this year. . .The paid attendance was 9,954. The actual crowd was about 5,400.

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM

Coach Paul Mainieri’s comments: “The first six innings were some of the poorest baseball we’ve played in a while. It didn’t look good for us. The Greg Deichmann home run reminded me of Ryan Schimpf’s home run against Rice in the 2009 super-regional. We were down by a couple of runs and he hit a three-run homer. The place was electric when he hit that home run. Deichmann’s home run was a special moment for everybody. The hit-and-run by Robertson was as fantastic a job on a hit-and-run you’ll ever see. The plan was for Poche to follow Latz. I didn’t think Poche was going to give us more than three innings. I was hoping to get five innings from Latz and Poche. That was probably as well as Poche has ever pitched. Jared was amazing for what he did today for the team. I asked Poche after the eighth how he was doing. He said that he was done.”

UP NEXT

LSU will play Coastal Carolina in the Baton Rouge Super-Regional, which starts Saturday at The Box. First pitch is set for 8 p.m. Central. The Chanticleers (47-16) defeated North Carolina State 7-5 to win the Raleigh Regional in the resumption of a suspended game Tuesday afternoon. The LSU-Coastal Carolina game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

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