If you were an LSU fan, you probably reacted like Nate Ackenhausen.

As Ty Evans’ moonshot soared through the howling Omaha wind at a 51-degree launch angle, an impossibility soon became a reality.

A fly ball that carries out of play? Apparently not.

A fly ball that Josh Pearson would haul in? Well, I guess that isn’t possible, either.

Wait. A Florida grand slam to totally flip a 3-3 game? How?

The ESPN cameras found Ackenhausen showing a quizzical reaction to that ball leaving the yard as if to say “what???”

In some ways, that was the story of the day for LSU. A day that began with hopes of Sunday champagne — assuming the Tiger faithful was finally maxed out on Jello shots — ended with a dumbfounding 24-4 loss and 2 all-important questions ahead of Monday night’s all-or-nothing Game 3 of the College World Series finals.

More on those 2 questions in a minute.

(Yes, one of them is Paul Skenes. Duh.)

Let’s start with the “dumbfounding” loss part.

Sunday was dumbfounding not because of Evans’ wind-aided grand slam. More baffling was that Florida outplayed LSU in every way. Jay Johnson’s team had been totally dialed in all week and instead of continuing that, it delivered a dud of a performance in every facet.

Poor starting pitching? Yeah. The aforementioned Ackenhausen worked out of an opening inning jam, but other than that, his command was nowhere near the level it was at back on Tuesday when he helped LSU avoid elimination against Tennessee.

Sloppy defense? Yeah, there was that, too. Before that aforementioned grand slam, Jordan Thompson booted a potential double play ball. He had a defensive day to forget, as did LSU’s infield as a whole. Five errors for a team with 3 errors all College World Series was atypical, to say the least.

But above all else, LSU’s bats lacked the timeliness needed to close out a team as good as Florida. It was excellent that the Tigers pushed 3 across in the first 3 innings, which chased Gators ace Hurston Waldrep. Not so good? Leaving 8 on base in that stretch, including a brutal inning-ending double play from semifinals hero Tommy White. That opportunity, facing only a 4-run deficit, was really the last crack that LSU had to erase the baffling start.

So that leads us with the first question — can LSU respond with its back against the wall 1 more time?

It became a familiar spot for the Tigers in Omaha. They faced elimination on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday just to reach the CWS finals. Florida, on the other hand, hadn’t faced CWS elimination until Sunday. The Gators didn’t seem to mind one bit.

I mean, 24 runs.

What we don’t know is if the Tigers’ sloppy Sunday showing will carry over into Monday night. You can’t play much worse defensively than LSU did, but the bigger question is if those issues leaving runners on base will be this team’s undoing. It wasn’t on Saturday night when the Tigers stranded 17 on base in an 11-inning thriller that ultimately went LSU’s way by virtue of a Cade Beloso blast.

Could Sunday have been a different day if one of those early opportunities was cashed in? Sure, but not enough to swing that final result. More alarming is whether that’ll prove costly in a game that’s decided by a run. Up until Sunday, that was how all 4 of Florida’s games were decided in Omaha.

Yeah, I’d say that trend died a painful death somewhere amidst the Gators’ 6 homers in Game 2.

If Sunday’s beatdown was the death of LSU’s season, well, Monday night will be more of the same. Alternatively, perhaps this LSU team, who had to bounce back from some early-May woes and figure things out to put together a postseason run, mentally moved on from the blowout loss well before it left Charles Schwab Field. We’ll play the results on that one.

That could come down to the other question. The Skenes question.

If you’re Johnson, what do you do? The All-American who delivered an all-time gem on Thursday night would be working off 3 days rest for the first time. In both of his Omaha starts, he hit the 120-pitch mark. If the flamethrower starts and doesn’t look like the best version of himself, you don’t even have the option of bringing him into a high-leverage situation late.

If you save Skenes in hopes of bringing him in the later innings, what happens if Florida jumps out to a 4-0 lead? Does your best weapon become somewhat of an afterthought? Also, Skenes doesn’t have a relief appearance all year. Would he still be the same stud who delivered the second-most strikeouts in a season (209) in the last 25 years?

It’s arguably the toughest decision of Johnson’s career. He came to LSU to make calls like this in hopes of delivering the Tigers a national championship. That’s still very much on the table, but it’ll take him pulling the right strings … and maybe that won’t even be enough.

Skenes usage on Monday night will be dissected until the cows come home. And don’t think that’ll be as simple as asking Skenes how he feels tomorrow afternoon.

Ahead of Sunday’s game, the ESPN crew briefly asked Skenes about whether or not he was available for Game 2.

“Not today, maybe tomorrow,” Skenes said.

You could say the same thing about LSU.