FRISCO, Texas — Josh Pearson has seen everything in his three plus seasons at LSU.
He was there when Jay Johnson was hired. He was there when LSU won a national championship. He was there when the Tigers needed someone to make a play in the clutch over the last three years.
“I don’t think anybody in college baseball has taken as many key at bats as him over the last three seasons,” Johnson said. “This guy’s a killer, perfect fit for this team.”
So when his team needed him on Friday afternoon at Rider’s Field, in a tied game in the 10th inning against Kansas State, the Louisiana native was ready for the big moment once again.
With runners on first and third, Pearson hit a run-scoring single to give LSU a 6-5 lead. A two-run single from Utah Valley transfer Daniel Dickinson then grew the Tigers’ advantage to 8-5 before freshman right-hander Casan Evans closed out the victory in the bottom of the 10th.
“Great college baseball game, two really good teams,” Johnson said. “Hats off to Kansas State.”
Pearson’s single wasn’t his only big moment Friday.
Kansas State (4-5) was inches away from ending the game in the ninth inning after senior Seth Dardar, with a runner at first, hit a double toward Pearson in left-center.
Pearson cut the ball off before it could bounce to the wall and made a strong throw to sophomore shortstop Steven Milam as the runner was rounding third base.
Milam, from shallow left field, then turned and made a perfect throw to home to gun down the runner out at the plate for the second out.
“At first I was running to try to catch the ball, and then once I realized I wasn’t going to catch the ball,” Pearson said, “I knew I had to play it off a hop and get it in as quickly as I could.”
Pearson making the throw to Milam’s glove side allowed him to catch the ball in rhythm and execute the second leg of the relay perfectly.
“We kind of have a saying with the relays,” Johnson said. “One good throw leads to another.”
Kansas State coach Pete Hughes said that the runner, sophomore Dee Kennedy, blew past the stop sign from the third base coach on his way home. But Kennedy’s speed still meant that Pearson and Milam had to make perfect throws to get him out.
“If we’re going to screw up in our program, it’s going to be at 100 miles an hour,” Hughes said. “… Make them make a play.”
Following the game-saving play, Dickinson made a diving stop on a hard-hit ground ball to second base to send the game into extra innings.
Johnson believes the standout defensive plays made by Pearson, Milam and Dickinson were the story of the day.
“We don’t get extra innings, and have the opportunity to put up the three runs with (Pearson’s) RBI and (Dickinson’s) two RBIs if we don’t play defense,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of good athletes on the team, and it’s manifested itself into really good defense.”
The game would’ve never gotten to extra innings if it weren’t for Kansas State tying the score in the seventh and handing the LSU bullpen its rockiest inning of the season.
With the Tigers leading 5-2, freshman right-hander Mavrick Rizy surrendered a pair of singles and walked a batter to load the bases. Redshirt freshman left-hander DJ Primeaux replaced Rizy after the walk and hit the next two batters, cutting LSU’s advantage to one.
Primeaux forced a lineout for the first out but was then replaced by Dallas Baptist transfer Connor Benge. Benge surrendered a run-scoring bloop single that tied the game but bounced back by forcing a double play to end the inning.
Benge got LSU (9-1) through the eighth before handing the ball off to Evans.
“This game was going to get off the rails,” Johnson said. “… I’m really proud of (Benge) for how he responded.”
It was an up and down afternoon for LSU’s offense. The Tigers had someone reach base in every inning but one. They were also 3-for-13 with two outs and stranded two runners in scoring position with the game tied in the ninth.
But LSU still had its fair share of big hits prior to the 10th inning. After Kansas State tied the game at two in the sixth, Dickinson blasted a three-run home run into right field to give LSU a 5-2 advantage.
It was his second homer in as many games and his third on the year. He hit a two-run shot in the fifth inning against Dallas Baptist on Wednesday.
“I knew I got a good swing off on it, but I didn’t know I had power to the backside like that,” Dickinson said when asked about his homer on Friday. “So I thought it was a sac fly off the bat, to be honest.”
Dickinson, Milam, sophomore Jake Brown and junior Jared Jones had two hits each. Dickinson drove in six of LSU’s eight runs, including its second run of the day on a sacrifice bunt in the third inning that drove in freshman Derek Curiel.
The sacrifice gave LSU the 2-0 lead. Curiel got to third on a run-scoring triple.
As LSU’s leadoff hitter the last two games, Curiel reached base in eight of his last 12 plate appearances.
“I just did what I normally do when I prepare for games,” Curiel said Wednesday, his first game as LSU’s leadoff hitter. “Didn’t change my approach at all.”
Left-hander Kade Anderson got the start for the Tigers. He tossed a shutout through the first five innings, striking out nine Wildcats while working his way around three walks and a hit batter.
But he ran into trouble in the sixth, his third time through the heart of Kansas State’s order. After recording a 10th strikeout, he surrendered back-to-back solo home runs that tied the score at two.
“When you come back around a couple times in the batting order, you kind of get a sense on the sequences and what to look for,” Hughes said. “He’s a guy where you definitely have to pick a pitch if you’re going to get him. And we were fortunate enough to do that twice.”
Anderson’s day came to a close after the second homer as he was replaced by Rizy. He got a strikeout before Indiana State transfer and catcher Luis Hernandez ended the inning by throwing out a runner between first and second.
LSU returns to Riders Field on Saturday when the Tigers take on Nebraska. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m. and the game will be available to stream on D1Baseball.com.
