It was a must-win game for an LSU baseball team that had been scuffling through the first three weeks of Southeastern Conference play.
It was also just another day on the mound for Tigers’ ace Aaron Nola.
Nola strolled to the mound against No. 9 Mississippi State looking to halt a string of poor Tigers performances over their last four conference contests. LSU was swept by Florida in Gainesville last weekend and tied Georgia after 13 innings in the series finale the Sunday before traveling to play the Gators.
The Baton Rouge native did just that in a 3-0 LSU victory.
For the most part, Nola cruised past the Bulldogs with each passing inning. His only hiccup came in the top of fourth inning, when he walked two MSU hitters.
“There was a little bit of adrenaline,” Nola said. “I was trying to make good pitches, and sometimes I ran it up a little bit. All my stuff was working tonight, and I felt pretty good.”
Mississippi State picked up its first hit off the Tigers’ ace in the top of the sixth – Nola only allowed one other hit in the game, both were singles.
Nola kept the Bulldogs from crossing the plate by turning to his entire repertoire. He ended six of eight frames with a strikeout.
The LSU right-hander’s final line said it all – Nola tossed eight innings of two-hit baseball, striking out 10 and issuing two walks on 116 pitches.
“He takes his specialness to another level every time he pitches,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “You look up at the scoreboard at the end of the game, and you see no runs, two hits and 10 strikeouts, and you say, “Ho-hum.” But there’s points where he has to raise his game to another level, and it just changes the whole game. That’s what the great ones do.”
LSU junior right-hander Joe Broussard relieved Nola in the ninth inning to record his sixth save of the season.
Mainieri didn’t even tell Nola he would start the series opener until Thursday night at around 8:30 p.m. Due to inclement weather expected in Baton Rouge this weekend, Mainieri originally had freshman southpaw Jared Poche’ slated to toe the rubber on Friday night.
If his squad would only play one game this weekend, though, Mainieri said he wanted Nola to be the starter to take the mound.
“I felt ready. Right when he said that, I told him I was ready to go,” Nola said. “It’s really not that big of a deal for me. I can go five, six or seven days [in between starts], depending on what the situation is.”
The only offense LSU needed came in the form of two triples in the bottom of the third inning. The first was a bullet off the bat of senior designated hitter Sean McMullen to lead off the frame. One batter later, sophomore right fielder Mark Laird stroked a pitch down the right field line to make it 1-0.
LSU picked up two more runs on sophomore shortstop Alex Bregman’s RBI single and a McMullen sacrifice fly.
“Sean squared his up, and Laird squared his up, and anytime those guys hit a ball in the gap, they have a chance for three,” Bregman said. “It really lit a fire for our team tonight. We just built off what Aaron was doing on the mound, and whenever you see back-to-back triples, you know it’s going to be a good night for the Tigers.”