LSU players prepared to fight for season vs. Tennessee

For the first time in a long time, the LSU Tigers looked human on Monday night after suffering their first loss of the postseason in the College World Series. Wake Forest yet again came from behind late, defeating the Tigers 3-2 in a tightly contested thriller in Omaha.

Now the Tigers face elimination for the first time this postseason, facing a familiar conference foe in Tennessee on Tuesday. Their backs may be against the wall for the first time in a long time, but according to first baseman Tre’ Morgan, the mindset of the team will not change.

“Nothing changes for us mentally,” Morgan said. “We always go out there and try to win one pitch at a time. We always play like it’s our last time playing the game. So we’re going to show up tomorrow and keep the same mentality, play like it’s our last time playing together.”

Morgan showed up for the Tigers on Tuesday, hitting an RBI triple and a clutch stand-up double in the eighth inning to help LSU’s offense. In an attempt to score and break the game’s tie, Morgan was called out when sliding into home plate at the top of the eighth inning, which ended up being a huge play given that Wake Forest themselves would break the tie in the bottom of the eighth.

Losing is never easy, but it’s even harder when it happens in heartbreaking fashion at the end of a game. But according to pitcher Ty Floyd, the Tigers are still excited for the opportunity that lies in front of them.

“I think that’s what makes postseason baseball so exciting, that a lot of people’s backs are against the wall and stuff,” Floyd said. “I know we’ve been here. This postseason we haven’t been here, but I know we’ll come out hot tomorrow and stuff. And I know we’re going to do our plan tomorrow. We’ll execute all we can.”

Floyd had an impressive start on the mound for the Tigers as their starting pitcher on Monday, throwing five scoreless innings to start off the game and ending the night with a career-high 10 strikeouts. He gave up just two hits on the day but his hot start wouldn’t be enough for the Tigers, as he walked two batters that ended up scoring in the sixth inning after Thatcher Hurd came in relief.

But Floyd and the Tigers seem confident heading into their elimination game versus Tennessee on Tuesday and they should be, defeating the Volunteers in three out of their four meetings this season including in their first game of the College World Series.

Tennessee has already fought off elimination once in the CWS, defeating Stanford 6-4 on Monday in a must-win game, and it will definitely be interesting to see which SEC team will prevail on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. ET in an elimination game airing on ESPN.