White and Morgan each hit 2 HRs, Skenes has 9 Ks; LSU beats Kentucky in Game 1 of super regional
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Tommy White and Tre’ Morgan each hit two of LSU’s six home runs, Paul Skenes allowed just four hits and a walk over 7 2/3 scoreless innings and the Tigers beat Kentucky 14-0 Saturday night at the Baton Rouge Super Regional.
LSU can clinch a berth in the College World Series with a win Sunday in Game 2 of the best-of-3 super regional. Game 1, which was originally scheduled for 2 p.m. local time, was delayed more than 7 hours due to inclement weather.
Morgan, went 4 for 4, and White (3 for 5) each had three RBIs and scored three times. Gavin Dugas hit a home run in the fourth inning and Josh Pearson hit a lead-off homer to spark a six-run bottom of the fifth that gave LSU a 12-0 lead.
Skenes (12-2), one of the top prospects in the 2023 class, struck out nine Kentucky batters — just the fourth time in 16 starts this season that the junior, who transferred to LSU after two seasons at Air Force, was limited to single-digit strikeouts.
Morgan hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first and added another immediately after White hit a two-run shot in the second to give LSU (47-15) a 4-0 lead.
Nolan McCarthy led off the sixth inning with a double — the last of just two times Kentucky (40-20) had a runner in scoring position — and advanced to third on a groundout before Skenes had back-to-back strikeouts to preserve the shutout.
Reuben Church hit a two-out single in the top of the fifth and moved to second on a wild pitch by Skenes, who struck out Ryan Waldschmidt to end the threat.
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