Former Highlander In NCAA Tourney: Gets Save After Family Loss

EUGENE, OR —The Woodlands alum Devin Fontenot pitched two scoreless innings Sunday night to preserve his LSU team's 4-1 win over the hosts Oregon in an NCAA Tournament Regional in Eugene. A day later, the Tigers eliminated the Ducks with a 9-8 victory in a winner-take-all elimination game.

LSU (38-23) advanced to next weekend's Super Regional series against Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Fontenot, a senior reliever, will continue to be vital cog in the Tigers' bullpen.

Fontenot's clutch performance Sunday, in which he faced the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, came just two days after his 89-year-old great-grandfather William Thornton died peacefully after battling pancreatic cancer and a heart condition, according to The Advocate, a Louisiana-based newspaper.

Devin's mother Stacie told the newspaper that during her grandfather's final days, he often watched Devin pitch on a computer on his hospital bed. Stacie said she contemplated not telling her son about his great-grandfather's passing, but did not want him to find out another way.

When she did deliver the news, Stacie said Devin was most concerned about his grandmother, who had just lost her father.

"My mom told him he was right where Papa would want him to be," Stacie Fontenot said. "When he got the ball, don't worry about all this back home. Do his job."

Devin Fontenot has been doing his job out of the bullpen all season, and throughout his career in Baton Rouge. Through Sunday, the 6-foot-1, 180-pounder was 4-2 with a 2.94 ERA this spring. Fontenot had made 25 appearances, all in relief, and struck out 39 in 33.2 innings. Sunday was his team-high fifth save. Fontenot certainly has justified being named a 2021 Preseason First-Team All-America by D1 Baseball.com.

LSU head coach Paul Manieri said after Sunday's game that despite Fontenot issuing a ninth-inning walk to put two runners on base, he told Fontenot he was confident he would get the final out.

"There was nobody else I wanted on the mound but him in that situation," Manieri told The Advocate about a ninth-inning discussion on the mound. "(I said) 'take a deep breath, and let's go get him.'"

Fontenot then struck out the final batter preserve the win.

Had COVID -19 not hit, Fontenot likely would have been pitching in professional baseball at this point, according to The Advocate. Fontenot went 1-0, with an 0.90 ERA during a 2020 season that ended abruptly when the pandemic began.

Then, the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft was shortened to five rounds from 40, as team owners looked to save costs during the pandemic. The Advocate reported that an MLB team told Fontenot they were interested in selecting him in the fifth round, but then chose somebody else. So, Fontenot returned to LSU.

This year's MLB Draft is scheduled for July 11-13 and will have 20 rounds, and Fontenot will be hoping to hear his name called.

But first, LSU will be trying to get by the Volunteers this weekend and reach the 2021 College World Series (June 19-30). The Tigers have not been since 2017, when Fontenot was still a standout senior pitcher at The Woodlands High.