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The LSU baseball team rebounded in style from its first series loss of the season.
One weekend after losing two out of three games against South Carolina, the Tigers fired back this weekend against Florida, earning a three-game sweep.
LSU (43-6, 19-5) took game one of the series 3-2 in a tightly contested game. After the nail biter, the Tigers dominated Friday and Saturday’s games, winning 5-0 and 18-6, respectively.
“We’re back,” LSU freshman shortstop Alex Bregman told Tiger Rag Magazine following the win. “We’re going to be just fine – trust me.”
For the Tigers, the sweep was a welcome burst of offense for a lineup in need of a big series.
After muscling their way to the top of the SEC’s hitting categories for the first two months of the season, LSU’s bats had gone cold in the past two weeks. They entered the series with just 10 runs scored in their previous four SEC games.
Against the Gators, that changed – even amidst tough weekend weather conditions for hitters.
In Thursday’s game, the Tigers struck for eight hits and three runs in the one-run win.
Bregman, senior first baseman Mason Katz and freshman third baseman Christian Ibarra all had two hits in the victory.
But even with the hits, the Tigers didn’t break through for many runs in the opening – scoring just two runs through seven innings.
With the game tied at 2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, catcher Ty Ross broke the tie with a sacrifice fly to push the game to its final margin.
The fly-ball allowed LSU to win on a night where sophomore starter Cody Glenn tossed six and two-thirds innings – surrendering just one earned run, while striking out six.
“This was a tremendous ball game, and I thought the story of the game was Cody Glenn,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said following the win. “He battled from behind in counts and did a magnificent job by working into the seventh inning.”
Senior closer Chris Cotton retired the side in order in the ninth inning to preserve the win.
After the tough, gutsy game one win, the rest of the series was all LSU.
On Friday, sophomore pitcher Aaron Nola dominated the Gators in his fourth-straight complete game win.
The Baton Rouge native has allowed just four runs in his past four starts, striking out 31 batters.
Against the Gators, Nola controlled the ballgame from start-to-finish, allowing just four hits and one walk in 108 pitches.
“Aaron gave us another tremendous performance,” Mainieri said following the win. “He didn’t have to run up his pitch count too high by striking out a lot of betters. … He was at 94 pitches going into the ninth inning, so we decided to let him finish, but we weren’t going to let him go much longer.”
Nola’s strong outing was aided by cold, damp conditions and a stiff wind blowing in from the outfield of Alex Box Stadium.
But those unfriendly wind conditions didn’t hamper LSU’s offense.
The Tigers posted a run in the second inning and two more in the fifth and eighth innings each to grab control of the game.
Mainieri said if the weather were different, he believes the Tigers would have done more on Friday.
“I didn’t think we had a great night offensively,” Mainieri said. “But that was mainly due to the wind blowing in and the cold temperatures. We’re capable of doing more, and we’re looking forward to another opportunity tomorrow.”
LSU made its coach’s prediction ring true in Saturday afternoon’s blowout.
The Tigers fell behind in the top of the first inning when Gators catcher Taylor Gushue smacked an RBI triple. He later scored on a sacrifice fly, which put Florida ahead 2-0.
But those runs were the only ones surrendered by LSU starter Ryan Eades for the day.
The rest of the significant scoring was done by LSU.
The Tigers scored three runs in the second inning to quickly take the lead in the series finale.
After being kept off the scoreboard in the third and fourth innings, the Tigers exploded for 15 combined runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to blow the game wide open.
Bregman was 3-of-5 on the day with 3 RBI.
Katz and senior outfielder Raph Rhymes added two hits apiece.
Ibarra was 3-of-3 with 2 RBIs.
But the big blow was levied by junior second baseman JaCoby Jones, who was 2-of-5 with 6 RBIs, including a grand-slam home run that put the Gators at arm’s length for the rest of the game.
Down 18-2 in the ninth inning, Florida scored four runs to make the final tally a bit more respectable.
“I could sense when we got to the ball park today that our players were ready for this type of game,” Mainieri said. “They seemed to have a fire in their eyes, ant that was reflected in the final score this afternoon.”
With the three wins, the Tigers are now close to wrapping up the SEC Western Division Championship.
LSU has a three-and-a-half game lead over Arkansas with six conference games to play.
If the teams end up tied, the Tigers will take the title, because LSU took two of three games from Arkansas earlier this season.
Nicholls swept, postseason’s hopes clouded
Coming into this weekend’s series with Sam Houston State, the Nicholls State baseball team knew it had some work to do to push itself into contention for the Southland Conference Tournament.
The bad news is the Colonels were swept by the Bearcats – losing 10-0, 13-8 and 12-2 games.
But the good news is that McNeese State – the team Nicholls is chasing – also got swept this weekend. That means that even with the poor weekend, the Colonels still trail by just one game for the final spot in the eight-team postseason field.
The Colonels will have probably their best shot to trim the deficit this weekend when they host Northwestern State for three games.
The Demons will enter play in last place in the Southland with just a 3-18 record.
LSU freshman third baseman Christian Ibarra fires a ball in the rain during Thursday’s 3-2 win for the Tigers over Florida. The freshman slugger had a big weekend for LSU – one of many strong offensive performances from Tigers’ hitters this week. LSU’s bats powered the team past Florida in a three-game sweep.
