LSU Battles Back to Beat Oregon, Forces Regional Final Game Tonight
After being on the cusp of elimination on Saturday, LSU baseball has battled back through the Eugene Regional, winning a pair of games last night to force a decisive NCAA Regional final tonight against the Oregon Ducks.
For the soon-to-be-retired Paul Mainieri, he's enjoying every second of it.
LSU topped Gonzaga 9-4, then followed it up with a 4-1 win over Oregon.
The Tigers (37-23) will now have to beat Oregon (39-15) again tonight to advance to the Super Regionals. (First pitch is set for 9:00 pm CT)
Pitching performances fueled LSU on Sunday, with AJ Labas in the win over Gonzaga leading the way, and freshman Javen Coleman doing work in the win over the Ducks.
"It was obviously a long day at the ballpark for our guys," said LSU coach Paul Mainieri last night after the wins. "AJ Labas did a wonderful job and was able to save our bullpen for the second game. Javen Coleman was awesome, and it played out just as we had hoped. I couldn't even have dreamt that Javen would do as well as he did."