WALK OFF: Jones caps improbable comeback win over Tennessee
04/26/2025
(Photo credit: @LSUbaseball on X)
By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY
If LSU’s offense needed some help to break out of a month-long lull. The early morning hours of Saturday may have provided it.
Trailing 3-0 in a half-empty Alex Box Stadium, the Tigers used a pair of Dean Curley errors, a walk and two massively clutch swings by Derek Curiel and Jared Jones to score six in the ninth and take game one of the series is unimaginable fashion.
Curiel fell behind 1-2 in the count with runners and first and second and two out in a 3-2 game. He hooked an offspeed delivery from Nate Snead through the Tennessee right side to tie the game. That brought Jones to the plate. He also fell behind 1-2 and got a fastball up and out over the plate. He launched it 452 feet over the batter’s eye in centerfield to complete the comeback.
Dalton Beck’s effort cannot go unnoticed. Beck came off the bench and smoked a line shot into center for his first career SEC hit. That plated a pair of runs and got LSU on the board and into the ballgame.
In that 20 minutes of action after 1:00am, the Tigers seemingly went from reeling to rejuvenated.
Kade Anderson was brilliant Friday night. Liam Doyle was a bit better.
Both aces turned good lineups into punchless shells of themselves for the majority of the ballgame.
Anderson struck out 11 in 7.1 two-run innings. Doyle held a no hitter with two out in the sixth. He also struck out six in 6.2 scoreless innings. Jones’s flare single in the sixth was LSU’s only hit off the Volunteer ace.
The matchup was billed all week as a duel between two of the country’s best left arms. It lived up to every bit of it.
For LSU, I’m not as disheartened by the zero on Doyle’s line as I am the lack of quality contact.
Daniel Dickinson hit a ball hard foul early in the game, and his swing in the sixth with Jones aboard at second was a good one. It just ran out of steam on the warning track in deep rightcenter. Steven Milam’s line drive out to center in the seventh was struck well.
Aside from those three swings, LSU just didn’t hit the ball hard against Doyle.
The Tigers didn’t light up arms like Jared Spencer (Texas), Pico Kohn (Miss. St) or Kyson Witherspoon (Oklahoma), but they got Spencer out of the game early, hit two homers off Kohn and scratched a pair of runs on Witherspoon. They also won all of those games.
Friday night LSU just got dominated by a great arm. But they never quit. And they won this game, too.
Doyle no hit Texas A&M for six innings three weeks ago, and the Aggies hit a dozen home runs the next day and won two games.
Tennessee squared Anderson up a little more often including Gavin Kilen’s leadoff single in the sixth that beat a dramatic LSU shift. Then LSU cracked the door open for the visiting Vols when Anderson’s offering to Andrew Fischer skipped off Luis Hernandez’s glove for a wild pitch. Hernandez tried to backhand pick the ball instead of dropping to his knees and blocking it.
Fischer cashed the mistake in with a ground ball single to center to plate the game’s first run.
Tennessee gave LSU a little bit of life in the seventh with Doyle got the hook after issuing a two-out walk to Jake Brown.
Tanner Franklin came on and yielded a sharp single to Josh Pearson to bring the tying run to second base. Ashton Larson popped up to left field to squelch the threat.
Tennessee immediately pounced on their next opportunity in the eighth.
Fischer dumped a double into right field. LSU went to Zac Cowan to relieve Anderson. His changeup go by Cade Arrambide who was in the game for Hernandez after Pearson hit for him. That allowed Fischer to move over to third and drew LSU’s infield in so that Hunter Ensley’s slow chopper could get into right field. 2-0 Vols.
Another run came home in the ninth off Jacob Mayers. Kilen doubled to left to plate it. At 3-0, it felt over.
It wasn’t.
THE SCORECARD
Liam Doyle’s line: 6.2IP, 1H, 0R, 3BB, 6K, 109 pitches, 67 strikes
Kade Anderson’s line: 7.1IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 11K, 114 pitches, 75 strikes
LSU got three hits and drew three walks. In the first eight innings. LSU got three hits in its final four at bats in the ninth.
LSU was 1-for-12 with runners on base and 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position entering the ninth.
LSU did not get a runner to third base in the first eight innings
Fischer and Kilen combined for four hits, two runs, two RBI.
Jones only had two SEC home runs before his mammoth walkoff.
TIGERS WIN! TIGERS WIN! pic.twitter.com/Cr0nfzpHEq
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) April 26, 2025
According to Todd Politz at LSU Sports Information, the win is the third in program history when being held scoreless through eight innings and trailing by 3+. (5/1/08 vs South Carolina in the SEC Tournament and 3/24/91 at Ole Miss)
WHAT’S NEXT
Game two of the series is set for 7:00 on Saturday night. LSU will start Anthony Eyanson (6-1, 3.52ERA). Tennessee will counter with junior right hander Marcus Phillips (2-3, 2.96ERA).
The game will be televised on ESPNU. Baton Rouge listeners can listen on WDGL 98.1 FM with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30.