Dylan Crews, Gavin Dugas felt like LSU was in Game 2 despite lopsided score

LSU had one of the worst days any team has ever had in the College World Series on Sunday. Against Florida, the Tigers let up 24 runs, a record for runs allowed in a College World Series Final. Despite this, stars Dylan Crews and Gavin Dugas felt like the game was closer than the score.

As Crews explained, there was obviously a point when the game was out of reach, but for the most part, it felt possible to make a comeback.

“Not really,” Dylan Crews said. “I guess you could say when it got up to about 20 runs. But we felt like we were in it the whole time, honestly. We made some pretty remarkable comebacks in our career. So it is what it is. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to move on.”

Dugas added to that, pointing out that their mindset doesn’t change in a blowout.

“To go along with that, our mindset is never to give up and just to stay with the pitch no matter the situation. That’s where we were at mentally.”

The reality is that the loss on Sunday was just one game and in a best-of-three series, LSU can’t turn one bad loss into two. On Monday night, the Tigers will have a chance to get revenge for that game and win a championship in the process.

To do that, as head coach Jay Johnson explained, LSU is going to need to play in character.

“Get a complete reset. I don’t know what our fielding percentage in the NCAA Tournament was going into today, but I’m guessing it was pretty good. We’re not in a place where we’re going to go out and hit a bunch of balls on the concrete and those type of things. We need to get these guys rested, get their bodies underneath you,” Johnson said.

“For us it’s playing in character. When I look at this record of — Florida’s 54-16; they do a good job and they make it hard for you. We’re 53-17, and if you’re 53-17 you’ve done a heck of a lot more right than wrong. So we’re going to stick to how we prepare and roll it out tomorrow and give it everything we have. One game for the national championship.”

Dylan Crews on the loss to Florida

Following the loss to Florida, Dylan Crews emphasized that he and everyone else in the LSU locker room had already moved on from the game.

“I feel like everybody in the locker room already forgot about it really. We do a pretty good job of that. I think we’ve only lost back-to-back games twice this year,” Crews said.

“So, yeah, everybody’s going to be mentally sharp tomorrow, and we’re going to do what we’ve got to do tonight to get our bodies right, and we’ll be good for tomorrow.”