Nate Ackenhausen says changeup was working well against Tennessee

Nate Ackenhausen had his changeup on point in his start for LSU against Tennessee in the College World Series.

The Tigers advanced to the semifinals with the win and will take on Wake Forest once again. But if LSU can get more performances like Ackenhausen’s, the Tigers might be in position to win it all.

Ackenhausen chalked it up to confidence when discussing his start and pitch selection.

“The changeup was really working for me,” Ackenhausen said. “I know with the wind blowing in and how hard it is to hit a ball out of here. On a normal day I was just, like, I get a 2-0 changeup call and I’d just throw it down the middle and say, let them put it in play, because you’ve seen some balls hit today that were about 108 off the bat and they were kind of at the warning track.

“I just pitched with confidence. I had confidence in my defense among me.”

Nate Ackenhausen delivers stellar performance

Ackenhausen went six innings and gave up zero runs. He did his job.

Riley Cooper finished off the final three innings to cap off the 5-0 shutout against the Volunteers.

However, Ackenhausen didn’t even find out he was starting until the day of.

“Coach texted me at 8:56,” Ackenhausen said. “I didn’t respond until 11:10. I was sleeping in a little bit. I think I just texted him, ‘I’ll give it all I got.’”

This was a stark contrast to earlier this season. Head coach Jay Johnson previously mentioned how he wanted his players to be different by now.

“It’s really big. And this tournament, you always find one or two of those,” Johnson said. “I just don’t see it as like a Cinderella thing because he’s one of the most important parts of our pitching staff. He was down with a sore shoulder the beginning of conference, and that was right through Arkansas, Tennessee. I did not feel very comfortable about that because he was a huge part of it. Then there was a little bit of working his way back.

“The pitchability lended you to believe he could start. I think it was — a key outing was when we extended him at the SEC Tournament against South Carolina, and we got him to 63 or 64 pitches. Had a good outing in a Regional against Oregon State. And then fortunately in the Super Regional we won in two games, but he was kind of that piece that was going to be a part of a game three if we needed it. So super job tonight. And maybe that time off allowed him to do what he did tonight.”