LSU’s Ty Floyd was strong vs. Wake Forest, but an ex-Tulane catcher helped put away the Tigers

OMAHA, Neb. — In the battle between the former and current No. 1 teams in college baseball, Wake Forest prevailed.

Now, to reach the championship round of the College World Series, LSU must win three games in three days — an arduous journey that begins with no idle time.

While the Tigers were the first to score Monday night, a missed opportunity in the eighth came back to bite them in the top of the eighth inning. Wake Forest catcher Bennett Lee, a Tulane transfer, tagged out Tre’ Morgan at the plate. 

Lee then drove in Danny Corona in the bottom of the eighth, and the Demon Deacons held on for a 3-2 comeback win at Charles Schwab Field. 

LSU (49-16) will face Tennessee (44-21) at 6 p.m. Tuesday in an elimination game. The Tigers have won three of four meetings against the Volunteers this season, including a 6-3 win Saturday in the opening round in Omaha.

“I shared with them two things: No. 1, I’ve had a team in this position before — lost 1-0 in a heartbreaker against Oklahoma State and won three consecutive games to play for a national championship,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said, referring to his 2016 trip to Omaha while coaching Arizona. “The very next year, LSU did the same thing. Let’s stick to what we do and if we do that, we’ll be in a good spot.”

Johnson is right: In 2017, the Tigers lost to Oregon State, then won three straight times — including back-to-back wins against the Beavers — to reach the CWS finals, where they lost to Florida.

They must follow a similar path after losing a 2-0 lead Monday to Wake Forest, the No. 1 overall seed.

Monday’s defeat came on a night when LSU right-hander Ty Floyd matched his season high with 10 strikeouts, then gave way to reliever Thatcher Hurd, who fanned five more over three innings. But LSU wasn’t much better at the plate, striking out 13 times against four Deacons pitchers.

Floyd looked sharp in the beginning, retiring eight straight batters at one point during the first three innings.

And he was doing so against Wake (54-10), a team that held a perfect 5-0 postseason record and owns the best winning percentage in college baseball (.844). He struck out their home run leaders, Nick Kurtz and Brock Wilken, twice each. (Wilken leads the nation with 31 homers.)

But offensively, LSU wasn’t seeing much.

The Tigers did manage a pair of runs in the third while facing starting pitcher Josh Hartle. Tommy White lined an RBI single to center field with two outs, advancing to second on a fielding error by center fielder Tommy Hawke. He scored Josh Pearson, who had drawn a leadoff walk. Morgan’s line drive cleared the head of left fielder Adam Cecere, who lost the ball in the evening sun. That triple scored White to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

Floyd shut out the Deacons through five innings — but in the top of the sixth, he started to lose his touch. He walked the first batter he faced, Hawke, and advanced him to scoring position on an errant pickoff attempt. After he walked the next two batters to load the bases, Hurd (6-3) came on to finish the game.

“It’s part of it,” Floyd said. “Sometimes you get out of rhythm a little bit. But I think I lost a little bit (of) command and I think I got a little tired. But Thatcher came in and did his job and allowed us to be able to stay in the game right there toward the end.”

Hurd’s second pitch was clocked for a single up the middle by Wilken, scoring the Deacons’ first run. Justin Johnson grounded into a double play, but that enabled a runner to score from third. Hurd hit the next batter with a pitch and loaded the bases again on a walk, he struck out Cecere to escape further damage. The game was tied, 2-2.

The Tigers had a chance to score in the top of the eighth when Morgan doubled down the right-field line and Hayden Travinski reached on an error by Johnson, the second baseman, when the ball bounced out of his glove.

Morgan advanced to third — but when Cade Beloso hit a hard ground ball to Wilken at third, Wilken made a difficult throw home to Lee, who tagged Morgan in the gut as he tried to slide head-first into home.

“We were in red, which means I go on contact,” Morgan said. “Soon as the ball was hit, I took off. I knew he (Wilken) was gonna have like an awkward throw. So I kind of tried to get a little bit over to get in the way. But he (Bennett) made a great play.” 

The run would’ve broken the tie — but instead, the score remained 2-2 with runners at first and second.

“That’s a heck of a play by Wilken,” Johnson said. “It’s a ground ball and we are going because if he doesn’t go, we’re going to hit into a double play and it makes it really difficult. Now you have a man on third standing there with two outs. It’s very simple baseball. I don’t know if Cade Beloso has hit a ground ball there all season, so you have to tip your hat to (Michael) Massey for executing the 2-0 pitch and getting him to swing through.” 

That set up another game-defining moment. Wake Forest’s best reliever, right-hander Camden Minacci (1-1), got Gavin Dugas to ground into a double play, closing the door on the Tigers’ chance pull ahead.

Wake Forest broke the tie in the bottom of the eighth. Hurd struck out Johnson to lead off, but then Corona doubled and Lee singled to drive him home, 3-2.

Hurd struck out Lucas Costello and Marek Houston to keep the damage at one run, but LSU’s batters were retired in order in the ninth.