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LSU Reaches College World Series Championship With Wild Walk-Off Win Over Arkansas

The LSU Tigers will be battling for a title.

Tyler Lauletta

LSU Tigers shortstop Steven Milam scores against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
LSU Tigers shortstop Steven Milam scores against the Arkansas Razorbacks. / Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

The LSU Tigers bested the Arkansas Razorbacks in a dramatic walk-off win on Wednesday night to punch their ticket to the College World Series championship series.

It was a tightly contested game all night that came down to a drama-filled ninth inning. After the Razorbacks scored two runs in the top of the inning to take a 5–3 lead, the Tigers took advantage of three missed plays by the Arkansas defense to come back and win.

First, with one out in the ninth and two men on, LSU shortstop Steven Milam hit a grounder to his Arkansas counterpart Wehiwa Aloy. Rather than toss the ball to second base and attempt to begin a double play that could end the game, Aloy threw to third to get the lead runner out.

While there’s no guarantee that Arkansas would have been able to turn two, it was an odd decision, as the two-run lead that the Razorbacks had meant that the Tigers’ lead runner was of little importance.

Next up at the plate was LSU catcher Luis Hernandez, who hit a laser into left field on the second pitch he saw.

Arkansas left fielder Charles Davalan had a play on the ball to end the game, but misjudged the catch, missing the ball as it bounced off his back and into the corner. Two runs scored to tie the game.

LSU first baseman Jared Jones would put the game away, sending a line drive that fired off the glove of Arkansas second baseman Cam Kozeal and bounced into the outfield. Ball game. Tigers win.

The sequence was as heartbreaking for Arkansas as it was exhilarating for LSU. There has been no shortage of chaos and brilliant baseball thus far at the College World Series, but the game between Arkansas and LSU will go down as an instant classic in Omaha.

With the win, LSU are set to face off against Coastal Carolina in a three-game series to determine a national champion. Game 1 is set for Saturday.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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