LSU pitchers credit help of catcher Alex Milazzo in key College World Series win

LSU survived another day at the 2023 College World Series by beating Tennessee on Tuesday night in an elimination game, and catcher Alex Milazzo was an unsung hero in the win.

He helped preserve LSU’s slim lead a handful of times with some excellent defensive work behind the plate, allowing pitcher Nate Ackenhausen to work through six full innings, a terrific outing given the circumstances.

“It feels good to have somebody back there you can trust,” Ackenhausen said. “Throw an 0-2 pitch you don’t want to leave it too over the plate so sometimes you have to bounce it. With both of them back there I have trust in them.”

Catcher Alex Milazzo didn’t exactly have a great night offensively at the plate, finishing 0-for-3 but reaching base once on a hit by pitch. He was responsible for four of the 10 runners LSU left on base.

Still, Tennessee will tell you he was a key part of LSU’s 5-0 win for his defensive work at the plate.

Multiple times Milazzo blocked balls in the dirt that would have allowed a runner to advance or score in a key situation had it gotten by him. That doesn’t show up on the stat sheet but has a major impact on the game.

And it wasn’t just Ackenhausen he was blocking for, either. Reliever Riley Cooper also benefited from that work.

“It’s just a confidence thing,” Cooper said. “When I need to get the ball down in the zone, I just trust that if I spike it, he’s a wall back there, or both of them is a wall. So I can execute pitches better.”

LSU protected just a one-run lead all the way through the fifth inning. It got a little more breathing room in the sixth inning when it tacked on one more to make it 2-0.

Still, it was the kind of game where a key mistake could have resulted in a big swing. Tennessee was making contact, it just couldn’t quite push runners across the plate.

With catcher Alex Milazzo providing an excellent defensive backstop, LSU started adding more insurance runs in the late stages, plating a run to go up 3-0 in the eighth inning before star Dylan Crews hit a two-run bomb to serve as additional insurance and stretch the lead out to 5-0 in the ninth inning.

Thanks to the win over Tennessee, LSU advanced to the semifinals of the College World Series where they’ll meet Wake Forest again. Wake Forest won a thrilling 3-2 game on Monday night.

This time around, the Tigers will need to knock off the Demon Deacons twice to reach the championship series in Omaha.

The two programs are slated to meet at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with a broadcast on ESPN.