It may not have been an easy going for the No. 7 LSU baseball squad against Northwestern State on Wednesday night, but a solid bullpen effort and a clutch single finally gave the Tigers a 2-1 win after 13 innings.
“I thought it was a great ballgame,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I tip my hat to Northwestern State. They were battle tested, and I don’t think they were intimidated at all coming in here to play us, and it showed by the way they played.”
The marathon contest finally came to an end in the bottom of the 13th inning, as junior second baseman JaCoby Jones laced a leadoff single and freshman outfielder Mark Laird followed up with a sacrifice bunt. In the next at bat, freshman shortstop Alex Bregman ended the extra-inning ordeal by sending a rope of a single into right field.
“I was really relieved because we won the game,” Bregman said. We didn’t care who won it [for us], we just wanted to come away with the ‘W.’ We didn’t imagine 13 innings, but hey, you’ve got to win baseball games.”
The contest didn’t always appear that it would turn into a pitcher’s duel.
LSU (19-2, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) struck first against Demons (9-14) junior starter Cody Butler with a single by senior left fielder Raph Rhymes in the first inning that put the Tigers on the board.
For the next 12 innings, though, the scoreboard displayed zeros for the home squad. Butler stifled the Tigers’ hitters, tossing nine innings of one-run baseball, surrendering only six hits and recording five strikeouts.
“He was mixing up pitches and mixing them in and out,” said senior first baseman Mason Katz. “It doesn’t matter how hard you throw, if you can hit that inside corner, then you’re tough to hit. That, and their defense played phenomenal. They did a really good job, and when the wind is blowing, you can’t turn on that inside pitch and hit it out of here.”
The LSU bullpen also held its own, as the combination of seniors Brent Bonvillain, Kevin Berry, Joey Bourgeois and Chris Cotton, juniors Nate Fury and Will Lamarche and freshman Hunter Devall gave up one run in eight innings, allowing the Tigers to eventually scratch the winning run across home plate.
“It gives you huge confidence, and it makes you want to go out there and win for [the bullpen pitchers],” Katz said. “Those guys are coming out of the pen and doing such a good job, and being able to pull out a win for them was awesome. They battled through this game, they came in and pounded the zone, and they did a really good job holding them down tonight.”
Lost in the bullpen’s success was a solid outing from freshman starter Russell Reynolds, who threw five innings with no runs.
“I thought it was really phenomenal,” Mainieri said. “That will earn him another start, and he’ll keep working towards achieving a good status.”
