LSU baseball’s hot start leads to a win over North Carolina in regional final Game 1

LSU forced a winner-take-all game with an 8-4 win over UNC.

After beating Wofford on Sunday morning to remain alive in the Chapel Hill Regional, the Tigers got a rematch with the North Carolina Tar Heels with a chance to send it to a winner-take-all game tomorrow. LSU did exactly that with an 8-4 win.

[autotag]Josh Pearson[/autotag] continued the hot streak he started against Wofford as he put the Tigers on the board in the bottom of the first inning with a two-run homer to give LSU a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the third inning, LSU tacked on another run as [autotag]Michael Braswell III[/autotag] hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 3-0.

In the top of the fourth inning, North Carolina got their first hit of the ballgame off of [autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] with a double to put a runner in scoring position. An RBI single scored him and North Carolina cut the LSU lead to 3-1.

 

 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, LSU loaded the bases before [autotag]Tommy White[/autotag] hit an RBI single, [autotag]Stephen Milam[/autotag] hit a two-RBI single, and White scored on a groundout from Pearson to extend the lead to 7-1.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, [autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag] hit a solo homer to extend the lead to 8-1.

In the top of the sixth inning, North Carolina scored a run on a passed ball to cut the lead to 8-2. After a couple of singles, Hurd was pulled from the game as [autotag]Justin Loer[/autotag] was called out of the bullpen. Loer walked the first hitter he faced to load the bases with two outs.

[autotag]Fidel Ulloa[/autotag] was then called from the bullpen. Ulloa struck out the next hitter on a 3-2 count to keep the score 8-2 LSU.

Hurd’s final line was 5.2 innings pitched as he allowed two runs on six strikeouts and zero walks. It was his best start since March 10th against Xavier. He came through when LSU needed him in this elimination game.

With two runners on base and one out in the top of the seventh inning, [autotag]Kade Anderson[/autotag] was called in from the bullpen. Anderson pitched against Wofford this morning but he still had enough gas in the tank to throw some more. He struck out the first batter he faced but he hit the second batter to load the bases with two outs. The Tar Heels then hit a two-RBI single to cut the lead to 8-4. The next batter hit a pop-up and we headed to the bottom of the seventh with the Tigers still up by four runs.

In the top of the ninth inning, North Carolina loaded the bases against [autotag]Gavin Guidry[/autotag] but he was able to get out of the inning unscathed as the Tigers won 8-4. The final game of the Chapel Hill Regional will be played on Monday at a time to be determined.

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