Riding the high from the 4-1 win over Arkansas on Saturday night, Head Coach Jay Johnson and the LSU Tigers would quickly refocus as they faced UCLA in the winner’s bracket game on Monday night with a chance of being one win away from the National Championship series on the line.

In what seems like an annual tradition, the circus around the LSU baseball games while in Omaha created another unreal environment as the Tigers faced the Bruins. LSU legends from the 2023 National Championship-winning team, including Morgan and Paul Skenes, made their way to Omaha to watch the Tigers on Monday, adding to the magic that LSU brings to the table when the Tigers are in the College World Series.

With a spot in the 2025 College World Series semifinals on the line, Coach Jay Johnson went with Anthony Eyanson as the starter on Monday night, while the Bruins opted for Landon Stump as their starter. Stump was the first to go down as UCLA went to the bullpen after the second inning. Stump gave up four hits and five runs with no strikeouts. Meanwhile, despite a three-run first inning, Anthony Eyanson had calmed down a bunch, but a rain delay at the end of the third inning complicated things a bit for Coach Johnson and the Tigers and the pitching staff. There was a lot of discussion in the background about the LSU pitching situation following the suspension of play on Monday night; as the first pitch rolled around, Coach Johnson decided that Casan Evans would be the guy for the Tigers on Tuesday. Evans would deliver a near-perfect game, giving up four hits and two runs, all the while striking out 7 UCLA batters on Tuesday.

UCLA would strike first in the top half of the first inning with a three-run ing to take an early 3-0 lead over the Tigers. As short-lived as it would be, a base hit from Jake Brown would give the Tigers their first run before Jared Jones stepped in to deliver a monster three-run shot to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead over UCLA at the end of the first. LSU would add another in the third to make it 5-3 heading into the weather delay. Following the suspension of play from Monday night, the Tigers would add two more to the scoreboard in the bottom of the 4th to extend the LSU lead to 7-3 over UCLA. LSU would add another insurance run in the 7th to make it 8-3. UCLA would battle a bit with two runs in the top half of the 8th inning before falling to the Tigers 9-5.

LSU will await the winner of Arkansas and UCLA on Wednesday night in the 2025 College World Series semifinals. All LSU needs is one more win, and the Tigers would be heading to the National Championship series, where they look to win their second National Championship in three years.

Photo Credits- LSU Baseball on X