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GAME 1 SUPER REGIONAL – LSU 2, OKLAHOMA 0
The attendance for the opening game of the Super Regional was 12,007
(paid) and 11,095 (actual). The actual is an Alex Box Stadium Skip
Bertman Field record, topping the 10,752 set last Saturday, June 1,
against Sam Houston State in the regional round.
With the win, LSU now has a record of 6-4 in first games of the Super
Regional. The record at either Alex Box Stadium is 5-2, 3-0 in the new
ABS-SBF.
LSU is now 56-9, winners of seven straight games, dating back to the
SEC Tournament, while Oklahoma drops to 43-20 and this loss stopped an
eight-game winning streak for the Sooners. LSU is 131-49 in NCAA Tournament play. The win was Paul Mainieri’s 25th NCAA post-season win at LSU. JaCoby Jones’ triple that would eventually score the technical winning run was his first of the season.
Aaron Nola pitched his fifth complete game of the season and since
giving up five runs in the first inning last Saturday against Sam
Houston State, he has pitched 15 consecutive scoreless innings in
running his record to 12-0.
The last complete
game pitched by LSU Tiger in an NCAA Tournament post-season game was a
4-0, five-hit shutout in 2004 Super Regional (game2) by Lane Mestepey).
The last time LSU pitching allowed just two hits in an NCAA Tournament
game was the 2000 Game 1 of the Super Regional against UCLA, 8-2. LSU
has never thrown a two-hit shutout in NCAA until tonight.
The last complete game two-hit shutout by an LSU pitcher was by Louis
Coleman on May 2, 2009 at Arkansas, 5-0.
Aaron
Nola’s outing marked the first shutout by an LSU pitcher in an NCAA
Tournament game since Lane Mestepey defeated Texas A&M, 4-0, on
June 13, 2004 in Game 2 of the NCAA Super Regional in Alex Box Stadium.
Mestepey fired a five-hitter and threw 108 pitches.
Nola’s shutout was the fifth by an LSU pitcher in the Tigers’ NCAA
Tournament history – the others were recorded by Brett Laxton vs.
Wichita State on June 12, 1993 (CWS Championship Game); Kurt Ainsworth
on May 31, 1999 vs. East Carolina (NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Championship Game); Justin Meier on June 4, 2004 vs. Army (NCAA Baton
Rouge Regional first round game); and Lane Mestepey vs. Texas A&M
on June 13, 2004 (NCAA Baton Rouge Super Regional Game 2).
LSU allowed only two hits in an NCAA Tournament game for the second
time in its history. The first time occurred on June 2, 2000 when the
Tigers defeated UCLA, 8-2, in Game 1 of the NCAA Super Regional in Alex
Box Stadium. Brian Tallet and Weylin Guidry combined on the two-hitter
for LSU.Aaron Nola tied the LSU record for single-season shutouts with
three – the other LSU pitchers with three shutouts in one season were
Randy Wiles (1970), Ben McDonald (1989) and Brian Tallet (2000).
The Sooners’ winning streak ended at eight games, the third longest win streak of the season.
Head Coach Sunny Golloway has coached OU to a 24-18 record in the NCAA Tournament since 2005.
The game marked the 10th meeting with LSU. The Tigers lead the all-time
series, 7-3, since meeting for the first time in 1962.
Oklahoma is 79-68 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
Max White passed assistant coach Rich Hills (1992-95) for second
all-time in games played at OU with 238…he is now one behind Keith
Drumright (1973-76) for most all-time.
In the
fifth inning, Jonathan Gray passed Geoff Geary (1998) for third most
strikeouts in a season with 143…he later tied Daniel McCutchen (2006)
for the second most all-time at 147 in the eighth.
For the second straight game, the Sooners sent the minimum to the plate in the first four innings.
Oklahoma played in front of a crowd over 10,000 (11,095) for the first
time since the 2010 College World Series against South Carolina
(24,180).
The Sooners are 15-16 when their opponent scores first and 1-19 when trailing after eight innings.
Gray threw more than 100 pitchers for the 15th time in 17 starts.
He totaled nine strikeouts or more for the eighth time and he has
struck out 32 batters in his last 25.1 innings pitched.
The Sooners were shutout for just the third time this season…the last
against Dallas Baptist, 2-0, on April 30.
Game 2 is scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT Saturday and will be televised ESPN2
LSU vs. Oklahoma
NCAA Baton Rouge Super Regional
June 7, 2013
LSU Head Coach Paul Maineri
Opening Statement
“It
was everything that everyone expected it to be. It was as great of a
pitching duel as you’ll ever see. On one hand you have a guy who was
picked the third pick in the draft in Jonathan Gray and on the other
hand you have Aaron Nola. Our guys have looked forward to facing Gray
but people might forget that we had a pretty good pitcher as well. I
wouldn’t trade him for anyone in the world. He was fantastic tonight
and we’ve seen this before. He pitched a typical game for him. Even
though he dominated the game, I still thought it was a tremendous team
effort. Gray threw so many sliders and he could throw them for strikes.
It was tough for our guys but they never stopped battling. I told
Jacoby (Jones) that he was seeing the ball well tonight and he would
eventually get to him. He then hit the ball in the gap at the perfect
time. Tyler (Moore) was ready and fortunately they made a pitching
change to let him regroup. I thought Mark Laird had a tremendous effort
it and it was a great team win. Aaron only threw six strikeouts and our
defense played great behind him. I thought (Alex) Bregman came back
tremendously from struggling last week on defense. We are one down and
we still have another one.”
On the atmosphere…
“Anybody that
hasn’t been to Alex Box Stadium for a game like this needs to put it on
their bucket list. You haven’t lived until you experience this with the
crowd and the atmosphere. I thought it was a very crisply played game
that did college baseball really proud tonight. There’s no other place
like Alex Box Stadium so that’s the kind of game that should have been
played here. It was an awesome ball game.”
On Tyler Moore stepping up…
“He’s
had a knack for getting big hits for us his whole career. I’m just so
proud for Tyler. He’s watching the whole game but not as a fan. He’s
studying the pitcher knowing that we may call on him. It’s a sign of a
great team that they are so unselfish. Our players that aren’t in the
game stay ready mentally and physically just in case they are called
on.”
On Mark Laird’s performance…
“I’m just so proud of Mark
Laird. I’ve believed in him from the day he has walked on this field. I
believe he will only get better. He is a great athlete and a good kid.
He’s got the it factor and it’s something you can’t describe. He has
that extra something. He’s kind of lost in the background but I think
he is a great player and has a great career ahead of him.”
LSU Player Quotes
SOPHOMORE P AARON NOLA
On giving up a leadoff double in the top of the fifth inning …
“That
leadoff double is definitely a momentum changer for the other team, but
my goal was just to not let that run score. Me and Ty (Ross) talked
about that when he came during that mound visit. He said, ‘Don’t let
this run score.’ That bunt was real big. We made that first out, and I
was looking for that strikeout. Fortunately, I got a chop to second.
That was a big momentum changer for us after that third out.”
On facing off in a pitcher’s duel against Oklahoma’s Jonathan Gray …
“Coming
into the game, I knew it was going to be a pitcher’s duel. All
(Jonathan) Gray has done this year is been outstanding. Our whole team
knew it was going to be a pitching duel, and we were going to get deep
in the game, both of us. We just needed that clutch hit. JaCoby (Jones)
provided that for us, and Tyler (Moore) came through for us.”
JUNIOR 2B JaCOBY JONES
On his key triple in the bottom of the eighth inning …
“Well,
I told Coach Jav (Sanchez), in the dugout before I got up to bat, that
I was going to sit on a slider. He threw me a first pitch slider, and I
didn’t swing at it. I was kind of disappointed at myself. Then, he came
back with a fastball on the outside corner when I was down 0-2. I know
my hands are fast, and I just trusted my hands. He threw a fastball
over the plate, I got the barrel to the ball and it went in the gap.”
“I
was going to sit on the slider until I got two strikes because he was
pounding the zone with all of his sliders. We were just swinging away.
He pitched great with his off-speed pitches. Then, he’d come back with
his fastball. I just trusted my hands and got the barrel to the ball as
I said. I was sitting on the slider before I got two strikes, but after
that I was just trying to battle and get on base.”
INF TYLER MOORE
On his clutch pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning …
“Well,
you know JaCoby (Jones) came up big, and that was a huge momentum
booster for us. I just used that to carry over into my at bat. Coach
told me, ‘Don’t be afraid to do something with the slider. He may come
at you early with it.’ That’s exactly what he did, and I just tried to
put a good swing on it, lift it and get it into the outfield to at
least score the run on a sac fly. It ended up going over his head.”
On his emotions before his go-ahead RBI double in the eighth inning …
“Ever
since you’re a little kid, those are the moments that you dream of. You
dream of getting the big hit to win the game. Really, all of these guys
are prepared for that kind of moment. We’re so close together this
year, and we want to do it for each other. Each at bat is just as
important as the big at bat, and really just battling and trying to hit
every pitch.”
Oklahoma Coach Sunny Golloway
Opening statement…
“What
a tremendous college baseball game. We tip our cap to [Aaron] Nola and
the way he threw the baseball. We’re extremely proud of Jonathan Gray
and the way that he threw the baseball for our program today. We’ve
grown accustomed to expect nothing less from 'Big Jon.' We kept a close
eye on the pitch count and it looked like [Aaron] Nola was winning the
pitch count contest throughout the game and that was getting to be a
bit of a concern. Really what it came down to was a man on third with
less than two outs. [Aaron] Nola got a punch out when we needed to make
contact and they brought the infield in and their guy hit a good pitch.
I thought [Jonathan Gray] had one strike and I thought he made a really
good pitch. You’ve got to tip your cap sometimes. They got the hit when
they needed to right there with a man at third – just trying to
hit a fly ball, which is what we needed to do earlier in the game in a
pitching duel. In summation, it’s just a great environment to play for
college athletes and one heck of a college baseball game. I’m glad the
country got to see it.”
On Jonathan Gray’s pitching performance…
“We
had made a decision going into the eighth that that would be his last
inning. You’ve got to understand what the young man has gone through.
Last week, threw 129 pitches in a first round win at Blacksburg and his
last pitch was 102 [miles per hour]. So even though he’s big and strong
and he can do it, he’s gone through the whole week, from a mental
standpoint, where he was going to be drafted. He found out yesterday
and whether you like it or not, that takes its toll on you mentally and
physically. He had just done too good of a job and we’ve got a very
good bullpen, so we were going to try to let “Big Jon” go through it.
When I went and made a mound visit, it was just real simple. It was
‘let’s not give them anything to hit, let’s go for the strikeout,
expand the zone if we can a little bit.’ He made a great first pitch
and just lost the second pitch. We’re not going to fault “Big Jon” –
not after what he’s done for us all year. We teach our guys we take the
good with the bad and vice versa. Sometimes you win, sometimes you
lose, but you come back tomorrow and you play hard, so that’s exactly
what we plan on doing.”
On his pitching plan for game two…
“We’ll
start Dillon Overton, our No. 2 left-hander who was drafted in the
second round. He’s got that behind him and he’ll sleep well tonight,
and hopefully he slept well last night, and he’ll be ready to go. He’s
looked stronger. He’s coming off a bit of a forearm strain which
probably kept him from getting drafted in the first round. He’s a very
good, quality pitcher and I know for game two, we’ve got two
second-rounders going. That’s pretty impressive after seeing what we
just saw.”
Oklahoma University Player Quotes
P Jonathan Gray
On JaCoby Jones’ hit…
“We were 0-2. I was going to throw a fastball, but I left the ball up. I threw it too close in the zone and it got hit.”
On his pitching strategy for tonight…
“My
pitching strategy was to mix early. I wanted to mix all my pitches
early and slow the hitters’ bats down. We had them [LSU] right where we
wanted them. I just did not throw a couple of pitches with conviction
like I wanted to.”
On the pitching duel and atmosphere…
“They
had a great lineup. The crowd was pretty loud, and it obviously favored
them [LSU]. It was a great game for both sides. We battled hard and
they battled hard, but, they ended up on top. It was a good game. Out
on the field it is very loud. It is hard to hear each other. We knew it
was going to be like this so we worked on it in practice. We definitely
started communicating and looking at each other more.”
1B Matt Oberste
On what the loss means…
“We
need to get over it pretty quick because we need to come back tomorrow.
You know, it is a three-game series and you have to win two. Jonathan
[Gray] did a good job of throwing. We have to do a better job as
hitters to get runs across.”
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