LSU players talk winning national title, unforgettable season

LSU clinched another national championship on Monday night in Charles Schwab Field, with a 18-4 win over Florida in Game 3 of the College World Series.

Dylan Crews, Jordan Thompson, Thatcher Hurd, and Cade Beloso took the podium after the game to answer questions on this College World Series, the season, and more.

Q. Dylan, you told me at the beginning of the season that you wanted to leave LSU a legend, bring home a national championship and win the Golden Spikes Award. You did all those things. What does it feel like to accomplish the things you set out to do?

DYLAN CREWS: Man, it’s such a great feeling. I feel like almost every box was checked off except that national championship box. And we all knew this was going to be our last game here. And to finally say that I’m a national champion, it’s the greatest feeling in the world. And I feel all boxes are checked off now. So it’s good.

Q. For all three athletes, could you all talk about what was going through your mind when the final out was out and the dogpile and the celebration?

JORDAN THOMPSON: I mean, I got the first two ground balls of the inning. And after I got that second out, I kind of looked at Gavin and almost started tearing up. But knowing that we have to get one more out, I wanted that last ball, too.

But I just can’t be more proud of my guys and the way that we came out all year and just competed and fought through adversity. When guys went down, guys stepped up.

That just speaks about the character about our team and the way that we just handled our business and own our deal every single day.

So it’s very rewarding for what we were able to accomplish, not only tonight, but the whole season.

THATCHER HURD: I mean, that is the greatest feeling in the world. And it’s being a national champion, but it’s with who we did it with, every single guy right here and every guy in that locker room. It means everything.

DYLAN CREWS: Yeah, man, I think we were all fighting for that last out, you know? The greatest feeling in the world. I mean, we’ve had some tough days in the fall, long days, just grinding it out.

We call it two-a-days where we literally sleep at the field and train twice a day. I mean looking back I wouldn’t trade anything for that, for those moments right there, because this is where we’re at now. This is the reason why we did all that stuff and it’s just a great feeling.

CADE BELOSO: I had a different perspective, being in the dugout on that last out, but just hearing the crowd finally starting to realize what’s happening. You look over in the dugout. You’re seeing so many smiling faces.

I’m holding Sammy Dutton in my arm and he’s just so happy. And watching that last strikeout, you can’t put a price tag, can’t put any feeling, words into that. It’s so exciting and it’s the sense of gratification. It’s awesome, and it’s everything that we work for.

Q. Cade, you said the other day that you grew you wanting to be Mikie Mahtook and Ryan Schimpf. What does it make you feel to realize that kids are going to be growing up wanting to be Cade Beloso?

CADE BELOSO: That’s pretty cool. I’d want to be like this guy to the left of me, these two guys. But set a go goal and achieve it. We have a saying around here, don’t dream because if you dream about it it seems unreachable. But set a goal and reach it. And the sky’s the limit.

It feels good to be Mikie Mahtook, Jared Mitchell, Ryan Schimpf and Sean Ochinko now. That’s something that no one can take away from us, being national champions.

Q. Were you the one who started the ring gesture? And was that an idea you had coming into this game if you were ahead? What was the deal there?

DYLAN CREWS: I’m not going to lie. I thought about it for sure. I saw Joey V. do it and Reese do it. I thought I had a good moment to do it in the eighth inning and did it. And I think Tommy did it and Tre’. It’s going to be a good picture. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Q. Cade, Jay saying that he had the meeting and things were going to change. How did the program change and in what ways?

CADE BELOSO: This guy just loves baseball so much. There’s not a person in the room that cares more about LSU, cares more about the game of baseball, more about people than this guy sitting to the right of me.

This program is so lucky to have Coach Jay Johnson. They’ll have to build a new intimidator for what he’s about to do. He’s not stopping, I promise that.

But it’s just the culture change. We don’t really like to throw around the world “culture,” but we’re a group of hardworking guys that are never going to stop and are always going the keep playing through good things, bad things, et cetera. I think that’s what changed the most.

Q. Thatcher, the offense put up a couple of big innings early in the game when you were out there. How did that help you calm down?

THATCHER HURD: When the offense is producing like that, my job is to get them back in the dugout as quick as possible. And that feels suffocating for the other team.

I just kind of tell myself, don’t give them an inch. That’s what I told myself through the whole outing, get us back, let them do their thing.

Q. When you guys are looking at this thing 20 years from now and might not be able to put it in full perspective, what do you think this 2023 team is going to mean to you guys?

CADE BELOSO: It’s going to mean the world to me. To leave LSU a national champion is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’ll remember playing with this guy and the two next to me.

Every time we see each other you’re going to remember the national championship. You’ll remember hugging at the end. You’re not going to remember what happened each game along the way, like, this guy got a hit, this guy punched them out. We enjoyed being around each other every day.

I’m sad it’s over. We just won the national championship but I’m sad we’re not going to practice and play anymore. But, man, I’m going to look forward to those reunions for sure.

DYLAN CREWS: It’s going to be a fun reunion for sure. It’s a struggle of mine as a kid to be where my feet are. I was always looking ahead, into the future. But when I stepped in the locker room this year and saw all the talent and all the group of guys that we had, I thought, it was my last year, it’s so important for me to be where my feet are and enjoy these moments.

And to go out on top a national champion and to cap off my career, it’s just an unbelievable feeling.

THATCHER HURD: The talent really speaks for itself. But the leadership and the chemistry in the clubhouse, I’ll forever cherish that. And that’s the blueprint for a winning team, the things — Cade Beloso, Gavin Dugas, Hayden Travinski, the veteran leaders were able to do it for us.

As a transfer I didn’t know anyone coming in. Take me under the wing right away. Dylan leading by example. Jordan taking charge of the field. Paul Skenes leading the staff.

That type of leadership is really special, and I’ll cherish that. And I’ve grown so much by playing with these three, playing for Coach, and Paul, and the list goes on. It’s just really special.

JORDAN THOMPSON: I think everyone’s going to probably remember us because of this national championship. And I think for me the greatest honor I’ve had being at LSU and playing shortstop for three years is to be able to go to battle with these guys every single day — practice, workouts, early mornings, days where you’re tired but nobody cares. And those are things that you can’t trade for the world.

And I just can’t be more blessed and grateful for the opportunity that we all had to be together and to be able to share this moment. It’s something that I’ll always remember.

Q. Jordan, you kind of struggled a little bit in this tournament. Then a big day at the plate today. Coach was saying how you were going to be a great story. So what was kind of your mindset going into today? And did you feel the crowd rooting for you?

JORDAN THOMPSON: I did hear them, I thought that was pretty cool. I think coming into today, we all knew this was going to be the last game of the season no matter if we won or lost. We just really wanted to leave it all on the line and not give an inch.

So I think not only for myself but everyone just came out here ready to go. From the moment that we all woke up and saw each other in the morning, when we had our team meeting, we knew what we wanted to do today and we knew what it was going to take for us to be able to accomplish it. I just can’t be prouder of my guys.

Q. Was there sort of a meeting before today or a message before today just heading into this being the last game, the deciding national championship game?

JORDAN THOMPSON: I mean, kind of just what I said. We all knew that this was going to be the last game of the season. We just wanted to leave it all on the line.

Thatcher going out there and being able to give us everything he had for six or seven innings, whatever it was, that was frickin huge.

And Cade and Dylan, being able to do what they did today but all year, those are things I’m going to remember. I don’t even know what else to say, man. It’s just an unexplainable feeling. I wouldn’t want to do it with a different group of guys. These guys are my brothers. I love every single one of them.

THATCHER HURD: I mean, can’t say it much better than that. That’s our last game as the 2023 Tigers. So we didn’t have to get ourselves amped up. We knew what we were playing for. We played for that, played for each other.

DYLAN CREWS: We didn’t really have a meeting. I think we all just knew, really.

We got punched in the mouth yesterday. But that’s the beauty of baseball. You get to wake up in the morning and do it all over again. So as soon as the game was over, everybody already forgot about it.

And we woke up today and you could just see on everybody’s faces they were ready to go. And there was nobody in the country, in the world, that was going to beat us today.

CADE BELOSO: Exactly what Dylan said. I don’t even think we had a team meeting last night, which is super rare for us. It was like let’s go get some sleep. Let’s forget about this one as quick as possible.

The message in today’s meeting before the game was one game, game 71, for the national championship. Are you in? And that was pretty much it. I’m pretty sure you just walked away and we were all like, yeah, let’s go.

You can’t let baseball get to you. The game’s brutal sometimes. And you get punched in the face. And just kind of show up and play the next day. I think we did a great job of that today.

Q. Dylan, instead of being drafted out of high school, you chose to go to LSU. After what you’ve experienced at LSU and here at Omaha, what advice do you have to any high schoolers who are deciding whether to be drafted now or go to college first?

DYLAN CREWS: Man, it was a tough out of high school. I was an 18-year-old kid. Didn’t know what to expect for the future. There was a lot of, like, just if you go to school, it was like a bad thing or something like that.

So to make that decision as a young kid like that and to be able to go to school — this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to school. And I wanted to experience this and bring a national championship to LSU.

So if I had to give any advice, it’s go to school, really. Experience this. Don’t miss out on these three years. Just develop as a player, physically and mentally for the next level and everything will take care of itself.