OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Jay Johnson has coached in the College World Series finals before, and he’s won his share of big games.
To him, nothing compared with Thursday night.
“That is one of the greatest moments in my entire life, what happened on the field tonight,” LSU’s second-year coach said after his team’s 2-0, 11-inning victory over No. 1 national seed Wake Forest clinched a spot in the CWS finals.
Tommy White hit Camden Minacci’s first pitch into the left-field seats to set up an All-SEC best-of-three finals matchup with Florida starting Saturday night. It will be a rematch of the 2017 final that the Gators won for their first national title.
“Now that we’re here, it’s not a surprise,” Johnson said. “This is the first team I’ve coached that I think can win a national championship. Hands down.”
That’s saying something. Johnson nearly won one in 2016 when he was at Arizona, which lost a three-game finals to Coastal Carolina.
LSU (52-16) became the first team to hand Wake Forest (54-12) consecutive losses. The Tigers had won 5-2 on Wednesday to set up a second bracket final.
“We just slayed a giant tonight,” Johnson said.
Dylan Crews singled to left leading off the bottom of the 11th against Michael Massey (3-1), prompting Deacons coach Tom Walter to call on his star closer. Minacci’s first pitch to LSU’s home run leader was a 90 mph slider, and White sent it out for his 23rd homer of the year.
“I thought a heater was coming,” White said. “But I was very amped up and I saw a slider that was up. I put my bat head to it. That was about it.”
It was a fitting end to one of the most anticipated non-championship CWS games. LSU was the consensus No. 1 team in the major polls from the start of the season until May 8. Wake Forest was the consensus No. 1 the rest of the way. The teams split their first two games here this week.
The pitching matchup between LSU’s Paul Skenes and Rhett Lowder set this one apart from the first two. The two are projected top-10 overall picks in next month’s amateur draft, and they matched zeroes deep into the game. Wake Forest came in 18-0 in games Lowder had started.
Skenes allowed two hits and walked one before turning the game over to Thatcher Hurd (7-3) to start the ninth, and his nine strikeouts made him the Southeastern Conference’s single-season record holder. Skenes has 209 strikeouts in 122 2/3 innings; previous record holder Ben McDonald had 202 in 152 1/3 for LSU in 1989.
Skenes’ fastball was a tick down from Saturday, when he hit at least 100 mph 46 times against Tennessee, but it was still plenty good — as were his slider and changeup.
Lowder mixed his mid-90s fastball with a sharp slider and allowed three hits, walked two and struck out six in an efficient seven innings. Of his 88 pitches, 63 were strikes.
