LSU and Tennessee will both fight to avoid elimination in Tuesday night’s College World Series matchup.
The SEC competitors are squaring up for the fifth time this season. LSU took two of three games in a spring series and began the CWS with a 6-3 victory over Tennesee on Friday night.
Following Monday’s 3-2 loss to Wake Forest, the Tigers must defeat the Volunteers again to stay in Omaha. Head coach Jay Johnson expressed confidence in his team’s ability to rebound.
“I have zero concerns about these guys preparing well, coming in, and competing and executing our plan,” Johnson said after the loss, per Geaux 247’s Glen West. “We’ll have to do it against Drew Beam, who is one of the best pitchers in the country. So it will be a really good challenge, and we’re going to have to be ready for it.”
Beam has allowed three runs in his last three starts, including six shutout innings in a Super Regional win over Ole Miss.
Johnson didn’t reveal his pitching plans for the win-or-go-home contest, but they won’t involve Paul Skenes. The ace tallied 12 strikeouts over 7.2 innings in Saturday’s 123-pitch gem to hand Tennesee its first loss in the double-elimination bracket.
Johnson told his team that he was in a similar situation when Arizona overcame a CWS loss to make the 2016 championship stage. While he wasn’t with the program yet, LSU took the same path the following year.
“I have all the faith in the world in our team that we can do that,” he said. “So let’s stick to what we do. And if we do that well, then we’ll be in a good spot.”
LSU and Tennessee will play at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.