Lange pitches LSU to 2-0 win against UNCW

With his 119th pitch at 1:09 a.m. Sunday, SEC Freshman of the Year Alex Lange earned his 12th strikeout in a complete-game shutout that put the LSU baseball team in the NCAA Regional final with a 2-0 win against UNC Wilmington.
Lange (11-0) stood at the edge of the mound, raised his arms to the sky and listened as the crowd roared in celebration.
Hours earlier, the same sky opened in the bottom of the fifth inning of NCAA Regional game 3 and caused a three-hour, 16-minute rain delay. The start of LSU and UNCW was pushed from 8 p.m. to 10:15, but it didn’t keep the LSU faithful away.
While LSU (50-10) advanced to the winner’s bracket final, which was set for 7 p.m. Sunday, its contest was pushed back Sunday due to inclement weather in the Baton Rouge area before the NCAA told LSU that they would not play the game Sunday. Instead, the game was played today at noon.
The Tigers will meet UNCW again as the Seahawks eliminated Tulane, 8-2, in earlier action Sunday.
As for Lange’s performance Saturday, Mainieri said in a news release the pitcher proved why he has garnered multiple honors.
“Well, obviously Alex Lange showed why he’s a first team all American, first team all SEC, freshman of the year in the SEC, should be national freshman of the year, might be national pitcher of the year, and he doesn’t care at all about those kind of things,” Mainieri said. “All he cares about is winning and helping his team. He’s the next in the long line of humble superstars that we’ve had around here, guys that just care so much about the team more than anything else. But man, what a performance!”
Lange said, “Definitely, every pitch wasn’t working tonight. The beginning of the game was a battle. I felt like I grew up tonight during the game. I was missing spots at the beginning, walking guys, giving up hits, leaving balls up, but I was able to pitch out of some jams. Defense picked me up great like they’ve done all year, and we were able to manage to stretch a couple runs across. I’m just really thankful for that.
“But it was a battle. I had a lot of reflecting to do in the dugout and try to figure stuff out, but in the end, I came through with it and figured it out.”
The Tigers scraped across single runs in the top of the seventh and ninth to give Lange just enough breathing room.
After midnight, LSU finally found success against UNCW starting pitcher Evan Phillips in the seventh.
Catcher Kaden Scivicque hit stand-up double off the left-center field wall before Andrew Stevenson ripped the first pitch he saw through the right side to put runners on the corners.
Chris Chinea hit the next pitch from Phillips to right, scoring Scivicque and sending Phillips to the dugout.
Phillips (2-2) took the loss despite giving up only one run on eight hits with three strikeouts and no walks. He was lifted in favor of hard-throwing Jordan Ramsey, who allowed singles to Stevenson and Jake Fraley in the ninth before surrendering a run on an RBI groundout by Jared Foster.
Lange, who became the first LSU freshman to record 100 strikeouts in a season, closed the ninth inning with three straight strikeouts.
LSU topples Lehigh in NCAA opener
LSU stole eight bases for the first time in more than 20 years, overcame a rain delay and a 2-0 deficit to advance in the NCAA Baseball Regional, 10-3, against Lehigh Friday at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
LSU, champions of the Southeastern Conference and No. 2 national seed in the 64-team tournament, scored at least a run in each frame from the fourth through the eighth innings to pull away from Lehigh.
As planned, the Tigers used seven pitchers, of whom Austin Bain was the only to throw more than an inning of work. The staff allowed only five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Stevenson led LSU offensively, going 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI. Eight players had at least one of LSU’s 13 hits.
In winning its 26th-straight NCAA Regional opener, the Tigers stole eight bases for the first time since March 26, 1995, at Vanderbilt. It was also a postseason record for the LSU program, breaking the previous mark of five set in 1975.
LSU starter Alden Cartwright needed only 11 pitches to retire the Mountain Hawks in order in the top of the first.
However, when a sudden downpour soaked the infield and delayed the game prior to the bottom of the inning by more than two hours, LSU head coach Paul Mainieri elected to use his bullpen an inning or two earlier than planned.
Bain took over for the Tigers and worked around a single and a walk in the third inning to keep the game scoreless.
In the fourth, Mike Garzillo hit his 17th double this season off Bain and scored on a fielding error by Foster to put Lehigh ahead.
A double by Patrick Walshe increased the lead to 2-0.
A second time through the batting order, the Tigers figured out soft-throwing lefty Nick Macaione in the bottom of the fourth. Stevenson and Chinea singled and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch.
Danny Zardon’s RBI groundout cut the deficit to 2-1 before another wild pitch allowed Chinea to tie the game.
Hunter Newman (3-0) took the mound for LSU in the top of the fifth and worked around a leadoff walk with three-straight outs.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers took their first lead, 3-2, off Lehigh reliever Kevin Boswick (3-4), who took the loss.
The Tigers scored their run on Scivicque’s single up the middle that scored Alex Bregman.
A quick 1-2-3 inning by LSU’s Jessie Stallings in the top of the sixth allowed the Tigers to continue its momentum with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. The Tigers extended the lead to 6-2 with an RBI double by pinch hitter Chris Sciambra, a bases-load walk to Conner Hale and an RBI groundout by Scivicque.
After Lehigh struck for a run off a Doug Norman wild pitch in the top of the seventh, the Tigers added a pair of runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, Sciambra drove in Chinea with a sacrifice fly and Jake Fraley scored on a wild pitch to give LSU an 8-3 lead.
In the eighth, a double by Stevenson scored Hale from second, and Stevenson scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Chinea that put LSU ahead, 10-3.