I couldn’t have done it.

Facing elimination, I couldn’t have resisted the urge to roll out Paul Skenes, AKA the most dominant pitcher in America, in a win-or-go-home scenario. Don’t get twisted. Skenes was only on 3 days rest, so the idea of starting him would’ve been as aggressive as it gets.

Still, though. Any situation in Wednesday night’s game in which LSU’s belt got a bit tight with a lead against Wake Forest could’ve easily turned into a “let’s bring in Skenes” scenario.

Fortunately for LSU, Jay Johnson’s brain doesn’t operate like mine.

It operates like a guy who knows his team all too well. It operates like someone who trusted a true freshman like Griffin Herring to step in and silence the No. 1 team in the country after a fast start. It operates like someone who knew that a true freshman like Gavin Guidry could handle a spot with 2 on and the tying run at the plate.

Without those moves, LSU could’ve easily been heading home from Omaha a few days too early. Instead, the Tigers didn’t need Skenes to get some redemption vs. Wake Forest to force an all-or-nothing semifinal game on Thursday night.

All signs point to it being the Skenes vs. Rhett Lowder showdown. A CWS do-or-die semifinal game with a pair of future top-10 picks on the bump? Sign me up.

Well, according to Wednesday’s hero Cade Beloso, it’s not necessarily a given that Skenes gets the ball with LSU’s season on the line and a finals berth up for grabs.

“We love when Skenes is pitching. I don’t know if he’s going tomorrow,” Beloso said in the postgame TV interview, “but if he is, that’d be good for us.”

Yeah, it’s good for LSU. Skenes is pitching on Thursday. Book it. As Kyle Peterson said immediately after hearing Beloso try to play it coy “Skenes is sleeping in his cleats tonight.”

Yep. That’s much more likely than Johnson rolling out anyone but the mustached man on Thursday. It’s a dream matchup.

LSU won 9 of the last 10 Skenes starts, and 15 of 18 on the season. The last time Skenes allowed more than 2 earned runs in a start was exactly 2 months ago. Combine that with an LSU offense that’s starting to look more like the group that dominated the regular season and yep, that could be an unstoppable duo.

Take your foot off the gas against the Tigers and 2 pitches can turn a 1-run lead into an insurmountable deficit. That’s exactly what happened on Wednesday. A wild pitch with the bases loaded plated the tying run, and on the very next pitch, the aforementioned Beloso stayed hot and left the yard for a 3-run blast:

Once upon a time, it wouldn’t have been a given that LSU would fend off a potent team like Wake Forest. But the Tigers only surrendered 2 runs per game in Omaha, and since the start of the Super Regional, that number is just 1.8 runs allowed per game. LSU wouldn’t be in this spot without its pitching in those 4 non-Skenes games.

A grudge match against Wake Forest with an elite pitching matchup feels fitting. So what if it means that he’s essentially unavailable in the finals against Florida. LSU has to get there, after all. That’s always been the goal.

It’s hard not to feel confident if you’re an LSU fan. In addition to the fact that the Tigers just pulled out a pair of elimination games with massive question marks on the mound, history is on their side. We got reminders of the No. 1 overall seed drought that Wake Forest is trying to end.

Is it worth 1 more reminder? Sure.

The last No. 1 overall seed to win it all was 1999 Miami (FL). Does that mean Wake Forest is cursed and destined to fall at the hands of Skenes and LSU? Not necessarily.

But after the way Wake Forest celebrated its first victory against LSU and spoke confidently afterwards on Monday night, well, there should be a different tone heading into Thursday than earlier in the week:

The idea of Skenes beating Wake Forest seems very much possible, though Johnson did offer up a reminder that it will be an atypical spot for the heralded hurler:

We don’t know what Skenes will look like on 4 days rest. We do know that his shortest stretch between starts this year was when he got 5 days rest between MSU and Georgia. We also know that in the Georgia start, he went 7 innings, threw 116 pitches and struck out 12 while allowing 2 earned runs. Not too shabby.

It’ll take one more bit of brilliance to help LSU clinch its first trip to the CWS finals since 2017. There are no guarantees in Omaha, though. Not even Skenes.

But given the way the week started, getting a chance to turn the ball over to him with Wake Forest redemption at stake is pretty darn good for LSU.