OMAHA, Neb. – Less than a year ago, Louisiana State head coach Jay Johnson had 12 players returning to the Tigers roster who had appeared in a game for the Tigers.
He had to recruit, essentially, the key pieces to an entire team in a short period of time, bringing in players from the transfer portal, junior college, and local high schools, and get them to work as a unit and form a bond as a team during the fall so they’d be ready for a grueling Southeastern Conference schedule in the spring.
The veteran coach made all the right moves, and two of the key players he found in the transfer portal, starting pitcher Anthony Eyanson, who transferred to LSU from UC San Diego, and outfielder Chris Stanfield, who came from Auburn, played key roles on Sunday, as the LSU Tigers beat the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in game two of the 2025 Men’s College World Series final to take their second national championship in three years. It’s the eighth national championship for LSU and their second under Johnson.
The game got off to an interesting start when,ย with two outs in the first, Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall was ejected by home plate umpire Angel Campos after a called strike to Walker Mitchell, telling Campos, “You missed three pitches!” When first base coach Matt Schilling joined Schnall in voicing his dissent at the umpires, he, too, was sent to the clubhouse early, leaving Chad Oxendine to run the game for Coastal Carolina.
Coastal Carolina head coach, Kevin Schnall and first base coach Matt Schilling have been ejected from what could possibly be the last game of the MCWS finals ๐ฑ pic.twitter.com/NjiVeQ3KKR
— ESPN (@espn) June 22, 2025
By NCAA rules, Schilling’s ejection carries a one-game suspension, and both Schnall and Schilling were given an additional two-game suspension for continuing to argue. Schnall will have to serve a two-game suspension and Schilling a three-game suspension at the start of the 2026 season.
“There’s 25,000 people there, and I vaguely hear a warning issued,” Schnall said. “When I walk out to find out what the warning is, a grown man shooed me. At that point I can now hear him say, ‘It was a warning issued for arguing balls and strikes.’ At that point, I said, ‘Because you missed three.’ At that point, ejected.
“If that warrants an ejection, I’m the first one to stand here like a man and apologize. Two words that define our program are ‘own it.’ And what does that mean? It means you have to own everything that you do without blame, without defending yourself, without excuses.”
In the second, Coastal Carolina got on the board Dean Mihos hitting a wind-pushed fly ball down the line that cleared the fence just inside the foul pole for a solo homer and a 1-0 Chanticleers lead.
The ejection had an effect on the Chanticleers, and Mihos said of his homer, “We were just trying to get ourselves down from 100 there. Things escalated a little quicker than we liked. We were just trying to get back to a level where we could breathe, get our feet back under us and try continue executing.”
๐๐ง'๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ก๐.@CoastalBaseball grabs an early lead, as @deanmihos sends one over the wall in the left field corner. โ๏ธโพ๏ธpic.twitter.com/w4TLNsp2aE
— Sun Belt (@SunBelt) June 22, 2025
With Jacob Morrison on the mound, a 6-foot-8 righty with a 2.92 ERA this season and a fastball that touches the upper 90s, the Chanticleers had a starter Schnall emphatically believed to be the best in the county. But perhaps the early inning drama, the heat of the 95-degree afternoon, the winds swirling at 20-plus mph, and the LSU-heavy crowd got to Morrison.
Louisiana State tied the game in the top of the third when Ethan Frey’s liner to left field was misjudged by Coastal left fielder Sebastian Alexander, who’s first move was towards the infield. The ball went over his head and all the way to the wall, allowing Daniel Dickinson to score from second and Frey to reach second with a two-out double.
In the fourth, Jake Brown drew a lead-off walk and advanced to third when Jared Jones followed him with a single to left center. Luis Hernandez took a fastball off the elbow to load the bases with no outs, and then Chris Stanfield singled to left, scoring Brown and Jones for a 3-1 LSU lead. After Daniel Dickinson moved Hernandez and Stanfield to second and third with a bunt, Derek Curiel singled up the middle to send them both home and give the Tigers a 5-1 lead.
“I went up there with a clear mind, and … I was just trying to do it for the guys,” Stanfield said. “It was one on at the time. I knew if I came through it would put us on top. It was really just getting a good pitch and putting a good swing on it, like all year.”
Such a smooth swing by blue chip Freshman Derek Curiel who lets this CH travel and lines a 2-run single into CF. LSU has broken this one open with a 4-run 4th and now leads 5-1. pic.twitter.com/R1WEOHqq2l
— Peter Flaherty III (@PeterGFlaherty) June 22, 2025
Curiel’s single chased Morrison from the game after 3 2/3 innings and five earned runs on six hits, with a walk and two strikeouts. This was Morrison’s first loss of the season.
Meanwhile, LSU rolled along behind starter Anthony Eyanson, who didn’t run into trouble until the bottom of the seventh, when he hit Ty Dooley, and Wells Sykes followed with a fly ball to left field that was blown over the wall for a two-run homer that cut the LSU lead to 5-3. After getting Caden Bodine to fly out to center field, Jay Johnson lifted Eyanson for righty flamethrower Chase Shores. In all, Eyanson allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out nine over 6 2/3 innings.
“If [Eyanson] usually gets through the first, he’s special. It was like, ‘you’re the closer in the first inning, and then do what you do,’ which is get better as the game goes along, and there ain’t nobody better in baseball — in baseball — at pitching with runners on base than Anthony Eyanson,” said Johnson, when he was asked about Eyanson having to pitch with runners on base in each inning he threw.
“And I just didn’t feel like we ever allowed them to have momentum in the two games. It’s like this, it’s like in football — they were in third and eight the whole time because we did a good job keeping the lead-off guy on base. When we got a baserunner on, we immediately got the next guy out.”
“I was just waiting for adversity to hit me in the game. Right when that happened, I knew that’s when I put my pedal to the metal and pushed a little more, pushed a little bit more, and just continue to fight for the team. And knowing I got guys behind me that, obviously we just won this thing, so they’re pretty good at baseball,” Eyanson said. “But they just did their job behind me. So super grateful for that.”
Shores retired the next two batters, getting Sebastian Alexander to line out to first and punctuating the inning with a swinging strikeout of Blake Barthol on a 101 mph fastball. When he retired the side in order in the eighth, getting the 3-4-5 hitters Walker Mitchell, Blagen Pado, and Colby Thorndyke, it was the first time in the game LSU had a perfect inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, Dean Mihos led off with a single to right field to give the Chanticleers a chip and a chance. But Ty Dooley went down swinging at a 100 mph fastball, and then Sykes grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, giving Shores and eight-out save and the Tigers their second national championship in three years.
“Chase Shores, I’m so proud of him. I mean, he was a weekend starter on the 2023 national championship team as a freshman. His last pitch that season was 97 mile an hour fastball that struck somebody out from Tennessee, with the [Alex Box Stadium] rockin’,” Johnson said. “And then he had to go through the 18-month recovery rehab and persevered through all of that. And there’s nobody I would have rather had finish the game tonight for the second national championship than Chase Shores.”
LSU Baseball doesnโt follow the standard โ they are the standard. 8 rings. One standard. LSU Baseball. #GeauxTigers
— Jacob Hester (@JacobHester18) June 22, 2025
A year ago, Johnson knew he had some components of a good team, he just didn’t know if he had a complete team.
“I knew we had really good players coming back. It just wasn’t a lot of volume. I knew [Shores] was going to be back and be healthy. That was going to be a huge shot in the arm to the pitching staff. Might have been three years in a row if he had been healthy and never had gotten hurt,” Johnson said of Sunday’s closer, who had Tommy John surgery in 2023, when he was a freshman.
“But two years in a row — in ’23 we had 13 players drafted. That’s an SEC record — not an LSU record — an SEC record. Last year, I believe we had eight pitchers drafted, another SEC record. That’s a lot to replace over a two-year period. Maybe that’s why I’m so proud of this thing. This is a completely different team.”
LSU (@LSUbaseball) is the first D1 baseball program to win multiple National Championships in three different decades: 90s, 2000s & 2020s. pic.twitter.com/ZQoUHjzEpa
— Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums) June 22, 2025
A completely different team, indeed, and a complete team, as well — and now, one that is atop college baseball.
WBN NCAA: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
Photo: LSU players pile up as they celebrate their 5-3 win against Coastal Carolina in Game 2 of the NCAA College World Series baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
