BATON ROUGE, La. — A seven-hour weather delay segued nicely into a late-night party at Alex Box Stadium.

LSU belted a season-high six home runs, including two each by Tre’ Morgan and Tommy White, and ace pitcher Paul Skenes pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings as the Tigers crushed Kentucky 14-0 in Game 1 of their NCAA Tournament super regional series on Saturday.

LSU (45-15) can clinch a trip to the College World Series — its 19th in school history and first since 2017 — by beating Kentucky (37-19) in Game 2 Sunday at 5 p.m. Both teams will likely hope there is less waiting to play it than there was Game 1.

Shortly before the 2 p.m. scheduled start on Saturday, with fans already in the stands and players warming up, it was announced that the game would be delayed because of the threat of bad weather — even though the sun was shining and there was no rain on the radar near Baton Rouge.

The game was rescheduled for 7 p.m., without any rain having fallen, then delayed twice more when thunderstorms finally did close in on the city.

The first pitch was finally thrown a few minutes after 9 p.m., and it didn’t take long for LSU to reward the sellout crowd that waited out the delays.

Morgan homered in the first inning, then went back-to-back with White in the third to put the Tigers ahead 4-0. Gavin Dugas hit another solo home run in the fourth inning, and in the fifth LSU blew it wide open with six runs. Jordan Thompson hit a two-run single and Morgan also singled in a run during the big rally.

White blasted his second home run in the sixth inning, a long drive that flew over the scoreboard in left centerfield. White’s first home run also went out of the stadium, over the stands a bit to the left of the scoreboard. He finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs.

Morgan was 4-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs scored, and Dylan Crews had two hits and scored twice. Josh Pearson also homered. LSU finished with 15 hits, eight of which went for extra bases.

Skenes, meanwhile, carved through Kentucky’s lineup just like he has most of his opponents this season. The right-hander who is projected as a potential No. 1 overall pick in next month’s MLB draft threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings. He allowed only four hits, walked one batter and struck out nine. The one walk, to Jase Felker in the sixth inning, was the only three-ball count he had all night.

KENTUCKY AT LSU
NCAA Tournament super regional, at Baton Rouge
Game 1 – LSU 14, Kentucky 0
Game 2 – Sunday, June 11, 5 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 3 – Monday, June 12, TBA (if necessary)