LSU woke up Wednesday morning still alive in Omaha, and the team largely has [autotag]Nate Ackenhausen[/autotag] to thank.
The Tigers turned to the reliever to start Tuesday night’s elimination game against Tennessee. Though he hadn’t pitched more than 3 2/3 innings in an outing all season, he tossed six shutout innings in the 5-0 victory with seven strikeouts.
In the fifth inning, Ackenhausen found himself in trouble. He put two on with two outs, and coach[autotag] Jay Johnson[/autotag] came out to talk to him. After the game, however, Johnson said pulling Ackenhausen never really crossed his mind at that point.
“I just wanted to check on him, in terms of the fatigue level and then the heartbeat level,” Johnson said, per On3. You can see he doesn’t get too wound up or rattled over anything. And just felt like he could make a pitch to — I believe (Hunter) Ensley was up at that time — and he did, he get him off the end of the barrel for a fly ball to right field. Just trust, trust level. And felt like he had enough in the tank.”
Ackenhausen forced a flyout to escape the jam, and he came back out for the sixth inning. He retired the side in order, including two by strikeout, as his masterful night came to an end.
“He had obviously been throwing well and then another big thing was then he went out and got another full inning after that. And that really shortened the game which, you know, when you’re in this side of the bracket, you need that,” Johnson said. “And if you’re going to have a chance to do something, you’re going to need a performance like Nate gave us tonight. I’m really proud of him.”
The Tigers move on to the Men’s College World Series semifinals, where they will face Wake Forest in a rematch on Wednesday. LSU needs to win two in a row to advance to the championship series against either Florida or TCU.
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