Father of LSU player, LSU strength coach save Florida fan’s life at CWS

A Florida fan nearly lost his life during the sixth inning of the Gators’ College World Series Game against LSU Monday night, but fortunately two other people who were in attendance were able to save his life.

And the heroes were Tigers fans.

Dr. Jerry Poche, the father of LSU pitcher Jared Poche, and Jimmy Roy, whose son is LSU strength and conditioning coach Travis Roy, performed CPR and helped revive the man.

“The man died,” Poché said, via Luke Johnson of The Advocate. “He didn’t have a pulse; he didn’t have nothing. It looks like, luckily, we got him back.”

LSU infielder Cole Freeman’s mother, Kellie, shouted out to Poche after she saw the elderly man slump over and lose consciousness. Poche raced over and began providing chest compressions for several minutes before paramedics arrived. Roy, who has been a firefighter for 30 years, gave the man mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Poche speculated that the man, who was said to be around 80 years old, had a heart attack. Fortunately, he was conscious when paramedics took him out of the stands.

“The main thing is, when he left in the stretcher, he was conscious and nobody was doing compressions,” Poché said. “It looked like he was going to make it. They brought him to the emergency room and I talked to the senior paramedic over here at TD Ameritrade, and he said the old man is stable. That’s awesome.”

Florida defeated LSU 4-3 in Game 1 of the three-game series, but Poche and Roy still felt as though they contributed to a more important victory.

“He’s alive now,” Roy said of the elderly man. “He was done. He was done. He wasn’t breathing; he didn’t have a pulse, and me and Doc brought him back.”