Eric John (Easy E) Matherne
June 16, 2009June 18
June 18, 2009The LSU Tigers baseball team appears to have learned a lot from their College World Series appearance a year ago.
After taking out the Virginia Cavaliers 9-5 in their opening game on Saturday, the No. 3-seeded Tigers (53-16) defeated Southeastern Conference foe Arkansas (40-23) for the third time in four tries, 9-1.
LSU has won its last 12 straight games.
The Tigers pelted three homeruns against the Razorbacks off the bats of freshman Mikie Mahtook, freshman Austin Nola and senior Blake Dean to secure a spot in their bracket finals Friday afternoon.
With the win, the Tigers will await the winner of the loser’s bracket game today between the two teams they beat. They’ll play again Friday.
Monday’s win puts the Tigers only one win away from securing a berth in the College World Series game.
Either the Razorbacks or Cavaliers will have to defeat the Tigers twice in order to advance.
Against the Cavaliers, the Tigers earned their first opening round victory since 2000.
Home runs by Sean Ochinko and Ran Schimpf helped the Tigers erase an early deficit. Mikie Mahtook, Austin Nola and Blake Dean also dinged home runs, sealing the 9-5 win for LSU.
LSU’s Louis Coleman (14-2) started on the mound, giving up six hits over six innings.
