By Hunt Palmer
It’s Regional Friday. The Road to Omaha begins.
LSU won’t be taking the first base line at Alex Box Stadium today. The Tigers won’t be taking any first base line unless you count Ethan Clauss in the Northwoods League. The 2026 team is off to summer assignments, a job hunt, the MLB Draft, the transfer portal or a rehab room.
All Tiger fans have for now are the memories, and there are some great ones five years into Jay Johnson’s tenure in Baton Rouge. Since no one is unloading the ice chest on the Old Front Nine or firing up the smoker with a pregame flame, I figured we could take a trip down a short but wildly entertaining memory lane for the best moments of regional action under Johnson.
5. MILAM WALKS OFF WOFFORD
LSU drew the early game in Chapel Hill to begin the 2024 regional. Wofford jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with its small ball offense, and the Tigers had no answer offensively.
The Terriers led 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth. Michael Braswell and Jared Jones homered to tie the game in the eighth. After Griffin Herring set Wofford down in order in the ninth, freshman Steven Milam launched his second homer of the day, as walk off shot to right field to win it.
It’s DEFINITELY the hair 😈@Monster_Milam99 | ESPNU pic.twitter.com/7nQR2qMTbO
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) May 31, 2024
4. ELECTRIFYING EIGHTH SHOCKS KENNESAW STATE
The Tigers were toast in Hattiesburg. Johnson’s first regional game couldn’t have started any worse. Third seeded Kennesaw State led LSU 11-4 entering the bottom of the eighth.
That’s when the Tigers struck for 10 in the frame highlighted by Tre’ Morgan and Dylan Crews’s two-run hits. Crews flipped the score from 11-10 Owls to 12-11 Tigers with a double. It tied the biggest comeback in postseason play in LSU history.
What a night in the Hub City as @lsubaseball blasted 10 runs in B8 to make it 14 to 11 over Kennesaw State. Here is a view from #InTheBooth w/ @DT9TIGERS @AlexBoxVoice & @LSUTigersVoice on @LSUradio as Dylan Crews delivers the double to give the TIgers the lead. #HeyNow #LSU pic.twitter.com/IuhJTVySM3
— LSU Sports Radio Network 🐅📻 (@LSUradio) June 4, 2022
3. ANOTHER HATTIESBURG HEARTSTOPPER
Just 24 hours later, LSU was at it again, this time against the host Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
LSU needed four in the ninth just to tie the game against one of the country’s top pitching staffs. Crews led off with solo homer to trim the lead to three, but the Tigers had two out and no one on when the rally started. Josh Pearson singled, and Cade Doughty launched a two-run shot to make it 6-5 Southern Miss. Morgan was hit by a pitch.
Drew Bianco pinch ran and stole second, and Jordan Thompson delivered the tying single. Paul Gervase set down the side in order in the 10th, and with the bases loaded and one out, Pearson’s high chopper allowed Josh Stevenson to dart home to plate the walk off winner.
2. HURD, JOBERT BEAT BEAVS
The final two are reserved for title teams.
Rain played havoc with the 2023 Baton Rouge Regional. A three-hour rain delay halted Ty Floyd’s start, so Thatcher Hurd had to come on to start the fourth and immediately gave up two runs to make it 3-0 Oregon State.
Hurd would strike out a career-best 12 over five innings from there to keep the Tigers in it. The offense, as it did all season, finally showed up. Crews hit a two-run homer, and Hayden Travinski and Cade Beloso went back-to-back to put LSU ahead.
The Beavers tied it in the seventh, but Brayden Jobert’s moonshot to center in the eighth gave the Tigers the 6-5 win to take control of the regional.
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TROJAN TROUBLE
Little ol’ Little Rock showed up for a fight on Sunday and punched LSU between the eyes. That meant a Monday winner-take-all game in Baton Rouge.
A five-spot in the second made it 5-1 Trojans and put a heavy tension in the South Louisiana air. That was broken two innings later when Ethan Frey cleared the bases with a three-run double to right center to cut the lead to one.
Here comes LSU! Great piece of hitting by Ethan Frey – lets this FB travel, stays inside the baseball and hammers a three-run double into the RCF gap. pic.twitter.com/s8wWuiU3PW
— Peter Flaherty III (@PeterGFlaherty) June 3, 2025
Frey was everywhere. He’d homered in the first and scored the go-ahead run in the seventh after a leadoff double.
Luis Hernandez tied the game with a blast in the sixth and added to the Tiger lead with another in the eighth.
Jared Jones’s two-run blast in a three-run ninth snapped him out of a 3-for-19 regional skid and gave LSU insurance.
Anthony Eyanson sealed the deal with 1.2 dominant innings. The 10-6 final looks comfortable, but it was anything but.
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