If you’re a Florida fan, you slept well this week.

Your team has yet to face elimination at the College World Series having gone 3-0 with a trio of 1-run victories. On top of that, you watched an LSU team with questionable pitching depth play 4 games in 4 days, which concluded on Thursday night with an epic, historic Paul Skenes vs. Rhett Lowder showdown that somehow went beyond our wildest expectations. Eleven innings and 1 Tommy White blast to the moon was what it took in order for LSU to earn a date with the well-rested Gators, who now have their pitching lined up perfectly heading into Saturday’s Game 1 of the best-of-3 CWS finals.

A dream scenario for Florida? Absolutely. But does that mean the road is paved for history to repeat itself 6 years after the Gators took down LSU in the 2017 CWS finals?

Absolutely not.

LSU can win this thing, even in the likely event that Skenes has thrown his last pitch for the Tigers after emptying the tank with 8 shutout innings of 2-hit ball Thursday night. Skene threw 120 pitches.

Why? Well, all Jay Johnson’s squad has done this week is debunk the notion that it’s a high-octane lineup with 1 true stud pitcher. Without LSU’s pitching and defense, the offseason would’ve started earlier in the week. Instead, those areas picked up the Tigers while the bats were (mostly) quiet in those 3 elimination games.

Two runs allowed in 29 innings of “season-on-the-line” baseball is no joke. And remember, 21 of those innings were non-Skenes pitchers doing the damage. Against a pair of top-5 teams in Tennessee and Wake Forest, here’s how dominant LSU’s non-Skenes pitchers were in those 3 games:

  • Nate Ackenhausen: 6 innings, 0 ER, 4 hits, 7 Ks
  • Griffin Herring: 4 2/3 innings 0 ER, 3 hits, 6 Ks
  • Riley Cooper: 4 1/3 innings, 0 ER, 2 hits, 4 Ks
  • Thatcher Hurd: 3 innings, 0 ER, 1 hit, 1 Ks
  • Gavin Guidry: 1 1/3 innings, 0 ER, 2 hits, 2 Ks
  • Javen Coleman: 1 1/3 innings, 2 ER, 1 hit, 2 Ks
  • Blake Money: 1/3 inning, 0 ER, 0 hits, 0 Ks

Outside of Coleman, who got the early axe in Wednesday’s comeback win vs. Wake Forest, that’s 6 non-Skenes LSU pitchers who haven’t allowed an earned run. And again, the Demon Deacons were the No. 1 overall seed and the No. 6 offense in America.

They’ve got crafty, effective lefties and they’ve got flame-throwing righties. Versatility and depth out of the bullpen is suddenly a strength for LSU.

It helps that they’ve been lights out defensively, too. With the exception of a rare Jordan Thompson error in the 7th inning against Tennessee — that still didn’t lead to a Volunteer run — LSU has been nearly automatic defensively. Just 2 errors in that 4-game stretch prevented the Tigers from beating themselves.

Of course, the defensive play of the NCAA Tournament belongs to LSU. Specifically, Tre Morgan.

Do I believe LSU advances without that athletic masterpiece from the Tigers’ first baseman? Nope. Move over Derek Jeter. That’s as clutch of a defensive play as you’ll see. The anticipation, the corral, the on-target flip with a dive … all of it.

Let’s also not overlook catcher Alex Milazzo’s impact on that play — that’s an extremely difficult catch and tag in 1 motion with a catchers mitt — and really on LSU’s week as a whole. Multiple times, he buried balls in the dirt that could’ve allowed runs. Those are the little things that win titles.

(Also helpful is avoiding that dreaded mishap when the Charles Schwab Field left field sun is at its absolute brightest in the early evening. It was actually Wake Forest that struggled with that in its lone win against LSU earlier in the week.)

It’s no guarantee that LSU continues to execute in those areas. It’s also no guarantee that LSU’s bats will stay quiet, even against a Florida starting rotation with a 2.70 ERA. LSU only averaged 3.5 runs in the 4 games it played this past week. It did get timely bombs from Cade Beloso and obviously, the Tommy Tanks blast for the ages, but LSU’s first 4 hitters only hit .276 in those 4 games, including a .267 mark for future No. 1 overall pick Dylan Crews. Could water find its level a bit there? Perhaps. It’s worth noting that those 4 games came against the nation’s top 2 teams in ERA.

Both Florida and LSU have had no shortage of high-leverage moments in Omaha. Could it be significant that LSU’s high-leverage moments came in a slew of elimination games while Florida’s came with a loss to give? Possibly. Possibly not.

If LSU goes down in 2 games, we’ll say that it ran out of gas staying alive in the semifinals. If LSU finds a way to hand Florida its first loss in Omaha and ultimately avenge the 2017 defeat, we’ll say that this was a super team of destiny. Assuming either one is imminent probably seems a bit narrow-minded. After all, we really haven’t seen that dominant force in Omaha just yet. The Gators are 3-0, but just +3 in run differential.

We don’t know what the weekend will unfold. What we do know is that an LSU team that entered the postseason with some obvious strengths and weaknesses has since muddied the waters in a significant way. The last week suggests that we’re in for more thrillers than laughers, though human history suggests that nothing will top the game that sent LSU to the CWS finals.

The best bet? Don’t sleep on LSU, Florida fans.