Cade Beloso says Riley Cooper 'makes things uncomfortable' on opponents

When it comes to pitching at LSU, the conversation very often starts with RHP Paul Skenes. However, after a solid outing for the Tigers against Wake Forest, 1B Cade Beloso gave LHP Riley Cooper his flowers.

Beloso commented on Cooper’s skill set following LSU’s 5-2 victory in the College World Series. He said that he’s an incredible challenge for opposing team’s lineups because he makes them ‘uncomfortable’ and has it all in order to keep his opposition that way.

“He just makes things uncomfortable as a hitter,” Beloso said. “He can throw any pitch on any count for a strike whenever he wants to. In college baseball, it’s pretty hard to do.”

“He throws 90 to 93 miles an hour from the left side, which that’s pretty good. And he’s really good and he just pounds the zone. So you can’t take an at-bat off of him,” said Beloso. “He never really gets out of control, like sporadic, when he throws the ball. He’s always going to compete.”

Cooper pitched for 1.1 innings against five Demon Deacon batters on Wednesday night. With his 20 pitches, he threw 14 strikes to allow no hits or runs while finishing with a pair of strikeouts.

LSU did what they needed to do defensively to shut Wake Forest out from the third inning and on. Cooper was a big part of that as the Tigers will now continue to work within their pitching to find a way to advance past tonight and into the finals in Omaha.

Herring says his fastball was his strongest pitch against Wake Forest

In a game LSU had to win to stay alive at the College World Series, and with not much choice but to cobble together pitching out of the bullpen, Griffin Herring came up clutch. The freshman entered in the second inning and delivered 4.2 shutout innings against Wake Forest.

After the fact, Herring reflected on what was working so well for him. Simply, his fastball was getting the job done on Wednesday.

“I would say the fastball was probably my main pitch tonight. Had good run to it. I think maybe it sank a little bit sometimes. Sometimes it rode. So probably the fastball. Slider got working towards the end,” Herring said.

Herring’s final line was 4.2 innings of work, three hits surrendered, one walk, six strikeouts and no runs allowed.

He took LSU from the top of the second inning, when the Tigers trailed 2-0, to the seventh inning before he was finally pulled after 80 pitches. And he helped the Tigers win a must-win game to force a decider on their side of the bracket.