BATON ROUGE, LA. – The Trojans' magical postseason run is one win away from a Super Regional berth. Little Rock pulled the biggest RPI upset in Regional history Sunday night with a 10-4 win over No. 6 overall seed LSU in the Baton Rouge Regional at Alex Box Stadium.
That win sets up a deciding Championship game at 8:06 p.m., Monday that will be televised on ESPN2 with Dave Neal and Ben McDonald on the call.
"I was thinking about the seventh inning when you started realizing you got a shot to win the ballgame, and there was a gentleman that I respect a lot, and I won't say his name," Little Rock head coach Chris Cury said. "Right after I took the job, he came into my office and said, 'What are you thinking? This is career suicide. What are you doing?' I said, 'I just think we can win at Little Rock, and I think we can get good players and believed in the opportunity, believed in Little Rock and now we have the support and we, they just won the biggest game in program history on -- I keep saying it, one of the biggest stages in college baseball.
Little Rock is No. 243 in the RPI and LSU is 10. Also with the win, the Trojans become the fourth Ohio Valley Conference school to knock off a No. 1-ranked team. The Tigers are ranked No. 1 in the Baseball America, NCBWA and Perfet Game Top 25 rankings.
"I'm just along for the ride, guys," Curry said. "I'm just enjoying what these guys are doing. It's a blast to coach this team and they're having a lot of fun. They're playing with no fear, no worries, no pressure and we have been for weeks now. It's just getting normal, and I'm so happy and could not be more thrilled to get an opportunity to keep coaching them at least one more day. So, I'm just grateful."
Little Rock (27-33) fell behind 3-0 in the first inning, but led 6-3 after three innings and never gave up the lead.
Angel Cano smacked his third home run in three games – a two-run shot – to cut the lead to 3-2 in the second inning. He followed with a bases-loaded double that cleared the bags in the fourth inning to give the Trojans a 5-3 lead. Little Rock added one more run in the frame when
Reed Willbanks grounded out.
LSU (45-15) cut the lead to 6-4 in the fifth inning, but that as close as they got. The Trojans scored four runs in the eighth inning to seal the win.
The Trojans took advantage of 11 LSU walks while banging out 8 hits against five LSU pitchers.
Cano was 2-for-5 with 5 RBI and
Cooper Chaplain was 2-for-3 with an RBI and 2 runs scored.
Ty Rhoades and
Zach Henry each collected a hit and drove in a run, respectively.
Noah Burkey started the game on the mound and pitched 1.2 innings.
Brenden Katz relieved him and pitched 1.2 innings giving up just two hits and no runs. He was credited with the win and
Malcolm Brown got the save for finishing the game. He gave up three hits and 1 earned run with three strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work. Brown was not only happy about his impact on the biggest win in school history but also his son, Myles, turned a year old Sunday.
"it definitely was [the biggest crowd I've played in front of], but the atmosphere .. I just try to stay locked in, not let the moment be too big and just go do what I usually do," said Brown, who has battled a stomach bug since arriving in Baton Rouge on Wednesday. "I just go compete."
Brown said Sunday's win just proves what the team already knows.
"Yeah, I don't really think there's nothing we can't do as a team as long as we stay together, bonded right," Brown said. "There's nothing we can't do. No team we can't beat."
