It was smooth sailing for LSU senior starter Brent Bonvillain for four innings on Saturday night against Brigham Young University, but then a gust tipped the boat as the Cougars cruised to a 9-4 victory.
It was the Tigers’ first loss of the 2013 season, as they move to 5-1 on the year.
“I guess for the 31st consecutive year in my coaching career, we won’t go undefeated,” Mainieri said. “That’s really all this game means. We lost a ballgame, and they just took it to us tonight. It’s disappointing, of course.”
Bonvillain had three 1-2-3 innings in his first four trips to the mound, recording four strikeouts over that span as the Tigers jumped to a 1-0 lead. After surrendering a leadoff single in the top of the fifth, though, the wheels began to come off for the Tigers’ pitching staff.
The southpaw loaded the bases twice in the inning, surrendering one run before being relieved by junior Nate Fury.
“I thought Bonvillain started out great,” Mainieri said. “He gave us four really good innings, then he just kind of hit the wall, and I thought their hitters did a great job against him in the fifth inning.”
Fury then ran into complications only an inning later.
The junior surrendered three straight hits, including an RBI double, to put BYU ahead 2-1. After giving up a sacrifice fly to give the Cougars a 3-1 lead and walking another batter, Fury watched as BYU second baseman Brennon Anderson launched a three-run moonshot over the left field wall.
Fury’s day was finished, and the Cougars had five runs to show for it.
BYU wasn’t finished with the barrage of runs, though.
Junior reliever Will LaMarche struggled to find consistency in the top of the seventh, as a leadoff walk followed by a double put two runners in scoring position with no outs. A sacrifice fly later increased the Cougars’ lead to 7-1.
Freshman reliever Hunter Newman also had a rough night, as he committed an error and allowed a two-RBI single to give BYU a 9-3 lead in the top of the eighth.
“We’ve just got to regroup now and get ready for the early day tomorrow against Southeastern,” Mainieri said. “We can’t just walk around and pout tonight too much because we have to be ready to play tomorrow. We can only learn from it, turn the page and get ready for tomorrow.”
The Tigers’ offense opened its eyes in the bottom of the seventh inning, as freshman shortstop Alex Bregman laced a two-RBI double off the left field wall. Sophomore pinch hitter Tyler Moore would later fly out with the bases loaded, though, ending any hope of a further comeback.
The offensive surge came too late in the contest for the Tigers.
“We had some bad at-bats early in the game, and [BYU starter Mark Anderson] just out-pitched us tonight,” Bregman said. “He was better than our hitters tonight.”
Senior first baseman Mason Katz tacked on the Tigers’ fourth run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth.
