LSU Baseball Makes Comeback Against UNC, Fights for Trip to Super Regional

BATON ROUGE, La. (KPEL News) - LSU Tiger fans are eagerly waiting for the Tigers to step back out onto the field Monday night at 5 p.m. for a chance to keep their postseason alive and head to the NCAA Super Regional round.

But to get there, they have to finish what they started on Sunday and take down the University of North Carolina one more time.

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Regional host team UNC was the favorite going into the weekend, but the Tigers - eager to break the National Title Curse and make a run deep into postseason play - pushed the Tar Heels to the limit on Sunday night.

Explosive bats and a stellar pitching game kept UNC from getting much momentum in the evening game, and the Tigers pulled off an 8-4 victory. That victory came after an elimination game against Wofford, whom the Tigers beat 13-6 earlier in the day.

Right-handed pitcher Thatcher Hurd (3-4 on the year) pitched a season-high 5.2 innings on Sunday night, limiting North Carolina to two runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts, according to LSUSports.net.

“Talent and experience wins,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “Our players have talent, they’re experienced. We’ve been in games like that today and have come through and when that happens, our players should draw a lot of confidence from that. I have confidence in them, just like I had confidence in giving the ball to Thatcher tonight.

“North Carolina is an elite team, so you’ve just got keep playing. You just have to keep playing. I have a saying that everything is training for something. We’re trained and ready for tomorrow.”

It's been a tough road for the Tigers, who were projected to be one of the first four teams out of postseason play, according to several analyses.

READ MORE: New Postseason Projections Show Louisiana Cajuns In, LSU Out

The winner of the LSU-North Carolina regional championship game will advance to the NCAA Super Regional versus West Virginia, which will begin on either Friday or Saturday.

The game will be televised by ESPN2 / ESPN+ and broadcast on affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network. It can be heard on the LSU Sports Mobile App and at www.LSUsports.net/live.