LSU uses late HR to spoil upset bid by Rice
BATON ROUGE, La. — Returning from Monday’s 13-pitch relief appearance against Southeastern Louisiana, Rice righthander Willy Amador handed the top-seeded LSU offense six innings of hell on a sweltering Tuesday afternoon at the Baton Rouge Regional.
Aided by two early runs of support, the sophomore faced one batter over the minimum through six innings. He allowed two hits in that span and consistently forced weak contact.
The problem? The No. 2-seeded Owls notched only one hit after the second inning, stymied by a veteran LSU starter who had thrown 92 pitches in the delayed regional opener Friday. As the Owls clung to a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning, Greg Deichmann stepped to the plate with a man in scoring position.
With one thunderous swing, Rice’s chance for a super regional berth sailed 417 feet over the center-field wall at Alex Box Stadium.
“I felt like I threw great,” Amador said, “and just one hitter hurt me — bad. Three hits (by Deichmann) on me.”
Lefthander Jared Poche retired 18 of the 19 Rice batters he saw in six innings of relief, while Deichmann’s two-run homer propelled LSU to a 5-2 victory and the regional championship.
Amador surrended his lone walk to start the seventh, and Kramer Robertson followed with
a perfectly executed hitand-run single on an eyelevel pitch to put runners on the corners. Rice second baseman Grayson Lewis vacated his position to cover second base with the runner going, allowing the ball to sneak through the right side.
“They’re a good hitting team overall, but you can’t forget about that hit-andrun where the ball is up, and he pokes it straight through second base because (Lewis) went to cover the bag,” Amador said. “But that’s what we’re supposed to do: cover the bag and throw him out at second.”
Bryce Jordan sent a sacrifice fly into the rightfield foul territory and Robertson took second on the throw, setting up Deichmann’s game-changing shot. Blake Fox relieved Amador, and the Tigers added two more runs in the eighth on a solo home run by Michael Papierski and Robertson’s RBI double.
“(Robertson) was the key player of the game,” Rice coach Wayne Graham said.
Early on, Rice (38-24) carried over its production from Monday night with runners in scoring position. With two outs in the first, Connor Teykl lined an opposite-field double off Jake Latz, scoring Lewis from second base.
Latz, who was making his third career start after recovering from elbow surgery in the offseason, escaped with no further damage, but he lasted only one more out. He plunked Dayne Wunderlich to put men on first and second base, prompting LSU coach Paul Mainieri to bring in righthanded reliever Russell Reynolds.
But with the bases loaded, Robertson’s diving catch in shallow left field prevented the Owls from padding their lead. Poche’ quieted the Rice bats from there, tossing 50 of 69 pitches for strikes.
“Greg’s MVP of the regional, well-deserving,” Robertson said. “But we don’t win the regional today without Jared Poche, and I don’t think he wanted this to be his last game at Alex Box. And he pitched like it.”