Sundays were a struggle for LSU baseball.
An ankle injury to junior pitcher Kyle Bouman only compounded the problem at the start of Southeastern Conference play. With no defined Sunday starter and a sometime-sputtering offense, the Tigers went into Sunday’s contest against Mississippi State 0-2-1 in SEC series-ending games.
Bouman returned against Mississippi State. The offense was in rare form. And the Tigers picked up their first series sweep of the Bulldogs since 2008.
In his first extended appearance since March 15, Bouman scattered five hits over 3 1/3 innings, and the LSU offense exploded for 20 hits to dismantle the Bulldogs 17-4 in Alex Box Stadium.
“It’s hard to put into words,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I thought we finished off the weekend in grand fashion. I felt very strongly that our guys were going to come out and play great.”
Senior third baseman Christian Ibarra and sophomore center fielder Andrew Stevenson scored four runs each at the bottom of the lineup while junior catcher Kade Scivicque launched a grand slam in an emphatic six-run sixth.
Ibarra’s homer, which kickstarted the big sixth inning, was a no-doubter that cleared the bleachers in left field.
“That felt really, really good,” Ibarra said with a chuckle. “Everyone clicked today. Clutch hits, everyone was on. We were all being aggressive and taking advantage of those pitches.”
The Tigers scored in each of the first three innings, highlighted by three first inning walks from Mississippi State freshman starter Dakota Hudson. Back-to-back RBI singles from juniors Conner Hale and Tyler Moore put the Tiger lead at 2-0 after one.
Sophomore right fielder Mark Laird added a two-RBI double in the second to push the lead to 4-0. Laird finished the afternoon 3-for-4 and drove in a career-high four runs.
“We were just rolling over the momentum from the last couple games and fed off each other’s energy,” Laird said. “We were seeing the ball well today. The [hits] came at big times and really propelled our offense.”
The Bulldogs turned to All-American closer Jonathan Holder in the third in relief of Hudson, and he promptly allowed an RBI single to Stevenson and an RBI double to senior outfielder Sean McMullen to extend the Tigers’ lead to 7-0.
Holder was the second of six Bulldog pitchers who together walked seven LSU hitters.
“To get those two big hits off him at that time kind of broke the game open for us,” Mainieri said.
Bouman, who injured his ankle when he stepped on a baseball during practice three weeks ago, said any lingering effects of the injury were gone.
While the plan was for Bouman to go only three innings, Mainieri was so impressed with his outing that he sent him out for a fourth inning of work before yanking him with one out in the frame.
“It definitely felt awesome to be back out there,” Bouman said. “Just to go out there and prove to coach I can get extended a bit. We can build from this.”
After an ugly four game losing streak that saw the offense disappear and the bullpen falter in crucial situations, the Tigers said they heeded Mainieri’s advice to catch fire as the calendar turned to April.
“I think we played pretty intense and pretty good baseball,” Mainieri said. “Hopefully, we can keep this going.”