For the second consecutive game, nine innings wasn’t enough for the LSU baseball team. But despite the extra innings of action, the Tigers could never find their rhythm against a plethora of Tulane pitchers, and the lack of bat production cost the Tigers in the end.
LSU (20-5-1) mustered only two runs on five hits through 11 innings of play and lost to Tulane, 3-2, Tuesday night in Turchin Stadium. The loss snapped the Tigers’ six-game winning streak over the Green Wave (13-11).
Senior right-hander Nate Fury (1-1) suffered his first loss of the season for the Tigers after he surrendered the game-winning RBI single to Tulane sophomore left fielder Richard Carthon in the bottom of the 11th inning.
But the story of the game was the Tigers’ inability to give their pitching staff any run support, especially from the top of the lineup. The first three hitters in LSU’s batting order, sophomores Mark Laird and Alex Bregman and senior Sean McMullen, went a combined 0-for-11 on the night.
Tulane struck the first blow of the game in the fourth inning when freshman shortstop Stephen Alemais drove in two runs on a single against junior southpaw Cody Glenn, who got the starting nod for the Tigers.
Glenn was trying to record his first win since Feb. 19 against Southeastern Louisiana, but he had another underwhelming performance for the Tigers. He pitched just four innings and gave up five hits, two earned runs and two walks.
The Tigers tied the game in the next inning thanks in large part to Tulane pitchers Tyler Zamjahn and Tim Yandel, who walked a combined four batters in the fifth. But the Tigers couldn’t completely capitalize on the opportunity, stranding two runners on base after McMullen hit into a double play to end the inning.
Altogether, LSU batters went just 5-for-32 on the night, and the only batters to produce those hits were junior catcher Kade Scivicque, sophomore center fielder Andrew Stevenson and freshman left fielder Jake Fraley.
But perhaps the only standout performance for the Tigers was by senior right-hander Kurt McCune, who came in relief for LSU in the bottom of the seventh inning. McCune did his best to give his ballclub every opportunity to win the game, giving up no hits and no runs in four innings of work while striking out four Green Wave batters.
But it wasn’t enough for the Tigers as they stranded seven runners on base in the game, the last of which being Stevenson after he reached base in the 11th with a chance to take the lead.
After two consecutive games of extra-inning baseball, the Tigers have three days to rest up before they visit Southeastern Conference foe Florida for a weekend series in Gainesville, Fla.