LSU Overpowers Citadel in College World Series

As baseball coach at a military school, Citadel’s Chal Port knows heavy artillery when he sees it. On Saturday, he got a close look at Louisiana State’s cannons.

Tim Clark launched a two-run homer and Tookie Johnson let loose a pair of doubles to drive in three runs as LSU drubbed The Citadel 8-2 in a first-round game of the College World Series.

“I thought LSU was awesome,” Port said. “Man, they really took some cuts.”

“We had some super key hits,” LSU Coach Skip Bertman said. “Tookie and Tim Clark and Lyle (Mouton) are the strength of our club.”

While Clark, Johnson and Mouton took care of the offense, Paul Byrd shook off some early trouble to quiet the Citadel bats.

“Byrd had a real live slider,” Port said. “He got in a groove after the second inning. We were getting our hits, but not enough of them.”

The Citadel scored a run in the first and had the bases loaded with one out in the second when Byrd took charge, striking out Dan McDonnell and Gettys Glaze.

“They had the momentum until the two Ks,” Byrd said. “That was one of the biggest keys in the game at that time. They had the momentum their way so the two strikeouts were the biggest of my career. We regained the momentum and sent them a message.

“I began to wonder whether or not those ground balls were going to keep getting through and if they were going to keep hitting fly balls,” Byrd said. “That’s a credit to them. You tell yourself not to underestimate any team, but I did. I was a little lax and The Citadel is a good club.”

With the score tied 2-2, Ron Lim walked to open the LSU third, and eventually scored on Wes Grisham’s two-out single. Clark’s two-run homer to right made it 5-2. Johnson’s first double gave LSU an early lead and his second capped the scoring.