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LSU players break down hitting performance against Tennessee

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•06/19/23•

Alexhweber

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(Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK) Tennessee outfielder Kyle Booker (6) celebrates his run with teammate LSU infielder Jordan Thompson (4) during the NCAA Men’s College World Series game between Tennessee and LSU held at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Saturday, June 17, 2023.

For SEC teams, there’s often intra-conference play in the College World Series. This year is no exception as several SEC clubs made it to Omaha and two of them met one another on Saturday to open their respective runs in the CWS. It was No. 5 seed LSU who triumphed over Tennessee 6-3 to gain a leg up in pool play on their side of the bracket.

In the victory over the Vols, LSU rode another strong outing from Paul Skenes on the mound. He probably wasn’t satisfied with letting up a couple of runs, but 12 strikeouts and a win had to make him happy in the grand scheme of things. Of course, his offense certainly did their part, putting six runs across the plate to alleviate the pair of scores allowed by Skenes.

Leading the charge in the batter’s box vs. UT was Gavin Dugas and Brayden Jobert, a pair of home run hitters in the win. Dugas smashed a solo shot for his only hit of the day and said afterward that he simply did his job as part of a big group effort at the plate that day.

“We had a plan. I think we really stuck to it,” said Dugas afterwards. “We hit a lot of balls hard at people in the beginning. It kind of showed you how we came out. But at the end of the day we had a plan and I think we did a really good job of doing that as well as adjusting to the pitchers that came in the game. We were really locked in as a team.”

Sitting right next to Dugas, Jobert agreed and commented that the crowd was really something to behold. Although, he didn’t have any issues fighting off the nerves in front of such a big crowd considering he went 3-4 and hit a homer as well.

“I agree with him. We were just focused on the plan that we had before the game and slowing ourselves down, not getting too anxious,” Jobert said, piggybacking off Dugas. “Because, you know, it’s an unbelievable environment — 20-something thousand people there. So just taking our breaths and focusing on our job.”

The Tigers did just that and picked up the win to open their College World Series run. The Tigers now have the upper hand as we head into weekday play, while Tennessee must play their way out of the loser’s bracket.