After LSU gave up a Men’s College World Series record 24 runs in a 20-0 run on Sunday, Tigers leaders Gavin Dugas and Dylan Crews offered comments to the media that suggested little concern how the blowout might impact a winner-take-all showdown with the same Florida team on Monday. 

“Honestly, we’re not lost,” Dugas said in Sunday’s postgame press conference. “We’re ready to go. We’re going to do what we need to do to get ready for tomorrow night.’

And as the first batter in LSU’s half of the second inning Monday, Dugas drew a leadoff walk that became the first step in a deluge. 

The Tigers put up runs as voraciously in the 2023 Men’s College World Series finale as their fans put down Jell-O shots all week at Rocco’s. 

Dugas’ walk began a six-run inning, giving LSU a lead that — despite giving up a pair of first-inning Florida runs — the Tigers never relinquished. 

It wasn’t quite the 20-run margin that decided Sunday’s contest, but LSU left no doubt in an 18-4 rout to clinch the program’s first national championship since 2009. 

The title is also the first for second-year Tigers coach Jay Johnson, who headed up an Arizona team that came one run away from winning the 2016 national championship. 

Exorcising Demons

Johnson’s second opportunity in a decisive, Championship Round matchup was not nearly as nerve-racking as the first. With Monday’s rout, LSU avoided the pitfall that denied his Arizona team the crown as winner of the Championship Round’s first game, but dropping the next two. 

UA fell in 5-4 and 4-3 decisions to Coastal Carolina in 2016. 

LSU as a program also scored a measure of redemption for the next MCWS, 2017. The Tigers lost two straight to Florida in that season’s finale, which also marked the first trip to the title round for an LSU team since 2009. 

And while Monday’s thumping of the Gators removed any drama early, the Tigers got enough to last a few seasons in order to advance to the Championship Round. 

After dropping a 3-2 heartbreaker one week prior to Monday’s MCWS finale against the Demon Deacons, Johnson held an impromptu team meeting immediately after on the field. 

. @LSUbaseball Jay Johnson gathered up the team twice following Monday’s gut wrenching 3-2 loss to Wake Forest, the second in the dugout. AD Scott Woodward and President Tate were also giving the players some encouragement as #LSU left the field. @WAFB pic.twitter.com/Ahk9ll5lB3

— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) June 20, 2023

The scene deserves to go down in the annals of Omaha history, given how the Tigers played the rest of the MCWS. That includes a pair of rematches with Wake, the first a 5-2 victory that set up a sudden-death rubber match. 

Through 10 1/2 scoreless innings, Crews — LSU’s top batter all season — hit a leadoff single that set the stage for an iconic at-bat for Tommy White. 

TOMMY WHITE WALK OFF TANK TO SEND LSU TO THE FINALS

pic.twitter.com/KnyeXipTqs

— Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1) June 23, 2023

“I’m excited.”

Tommy White just had one of the biggest hits in @LSUbaseball history pic.twitter.com/N9glUEC0jL

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) June 23, 2023

Two-Man Wrecking Crews

Crews and White delivering the back-to-back hits that launched LSU past an outstanding Wake Forest and into the finals could not have been any more poetic. 

The Tigers twosome finished 2023 with team-leading batting averages of .426 and .374, and team-highs of 18 and 24 home runs. 

Fittingly, Crews and White raked in Monday’s championship-clinching win. Crews hit 4-for-6, while White went 4-for-7 and drove in three runs to cap his campaign with 105 RBI. 

And, in crossing the plate three times on Monday, Crews reached 100 runs scored for 2023, landing White and him in college baseball record books. 

A historic season for @LSUbaseball

Dylan Crews and Tommy White are the first pair of teammates in SEC HISTORY to score 100 runs and drive in 100 in a season. pic.twitter.com/lWyn3t8Pwp

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) June 27, 2023

It Just Means More Championships

No matter if LSU or Florida won on Monday, the SEC as a league was guaranteed its fourth consecutive MCWS champion — and, perhaps more impressive, it’s fourth different school reigning supreme in Omaha. 

Vanderbilt kicked off the conference’s run in 2019 with a defeat of Michigan. In 2021, Mississippi State denied Vandy back-to-back national championships — with a pandemic sandwiched between them — to claim its first-ever title. 

Ole Miss became a first-time national champion in 2022, defeating future SEC member Oklahoma in the finale. 

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em@__dc4__ | #ThePowerhouse pic.twitter.com/cNGVGtQI0C

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) June 27, 2023