LSU baseball's Steven Milam belts walkoff home run to down Wofford in Chapel Hill Regional
Plenty was made about LSU baseball's one-two punch in starting pitchers and it being the best duo in the Chapel Hill Regional this weekend.
Sophomore left-hander Gage Jump held up his end of the bargain for the No. 2 seed Tigers against No. 3 Wofford to start NCAA regional play at Boshamer Stadium on North Carolina's campus. He bounced back from an early blip to navigate seven innings, tying a season-high, striking out nine hitters while giving up two runs on five hits that he allowed early in the game.
To be its most effective and have its easiest path through the regional bracket, LSU's offense needed to capitalize on its opportunities and not waste quality starts from its ace pitchers.
Enter freshman Steven Milam.
It may have been late but the Tigers' offense got rolling, erasing a two-run deficit twice as Milam smoked two home runs, including the walkoff homer to complete the 4-3 comeback win for LSU. The Tigers advance in the winners bracket while Wofford (41-19) falls to the losers bracket.
LSU (41-21) will play the winner of No. 1 North Carolina (43-12) and No. 4 Long Island (33-23) on Saturday (4 p.m. CT, ESPN+/SEC Network+).
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LSU baseball freshman star Steven Milam hits walkoff against Wofford
Milam led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run for the Tigers' first run of the day, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
The offense followed his lead with Michael Braswell and cleanup batter Jared Jones each smashing homers in the eighth to tie the game 3-3.
Reliever Griffin Herring set the stage for the Tigers and Milam in the ninth as he struck out all three hitters he faced in the top half.
Milam dug in to start to the ninth and then after fouling off four straight pitches in a full count, the freshman launched one out to right to give LSU the victory. The switch hitter hit home runs off Wofford from both sides of the plate.
Wofford strikes first against LSU baseball behind sacrifices, stolen base
It's like death by a 1,000 papercuts. Playing in a league that's more predicated on the long ball and power, the matchup with Wofford for LSU was pretty different than what it's used to.
Wofford opened up the scoring in the second after a leadoff double from Daniel Jackson that LSU centerfielder Mac Bingham had in his glove but his full-speed sprint led to him crashing into the wall, which jarred the ball loose. Back-to-back sacrifices pushed the first run across.
Two batters later, the Terriers tacked on the second run off a single from Lucas Manning, who then stole second. Andrew Mannelly then stroked a hit back up the middle to score Manning.
Fiery offense from LSU baseball showed up late to NCAA regional bracket
The Terriers scored early. The Tigers were late to the party which was a stark difference to how they hit the ball in the SEC Tournament last week.
LSU didn't get its first hit until the third inning. It started the third, fourth and fifth innings with its leadoff hitter reaching base, two via a base hit and Bingham drew a walk to open the bottom of the fifth.
But in all three frames, the Tigers could not deliver a timely hit. After freshman Ashton Larson led off the third with a hit, Alex Milazzo and Tommy White struck out. After Jared Jones got a hit to open the fourth, Josh Pearson hit into a fielder's choice and Jones was thrown out at second. In the fifth after Bingham walked, Larson grounded into a double play.
After collecting just two hits through the first six innings, LSU's bats woke up against Wofford's bullpen. It crushed three home runs in the seventh and eighth innings to tie the game 3-3.
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball rallies to beat Wofford in NCAA regional bracket
