Tighten the screws and tie up any loose ends.
That’s exactly what LSU (25-8-1, 6-5-1 Southeastern Conference) accomplished in its 5-0 defeat of Lamar (18-15) on Wednesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
In their weekly non-conference contest, the Tigers extended their current winning streak to five games, achieving LSU coach Paul Maineiri’s agenda of playing nine different pitchers and piecing together an encouraging offensive performance.
LSU recorded a school-record 11th shutout of the season, led by junior Henri Faucheux’s first career start.
The bullpen’s 12-strikeout, four-hit performance was kicked off by Faucheux’s two innings. While the Laplace native acknowledged the starting pitcher holds some significance, he gave credit for Wednesday’s showing to the entire pitching staff.
“[Starting]’s a little bit different because your job is to come out there and set the tone as opposed to if you’re coming out of the pen and somebody’s setting the tone for you,” Faucheux said. “Most of the credit you can give to Aaron Nola. I think he has six of the 11 [shutouts]. It just says wonders about the whole staff in general.”
Maineiri admits the Tigers’ pitching staff isn’t as strong as seasons past, which forces LSU to rely on more production from the plate.
A key to LSU’s win against Lamar was putting pressure on the Cardinals by jumping to an early lead. Employing situational hitting drills they practice during the week, the Tigers’ first-inning run was scored after sophomore Mark Laird’s sacrifice bunt moved senior Sean McMullen to third, allowing for sophomore Alex Bregman to drive McMullen home on an RBI ground out.
An inning later, LSU junior Tyler Moore’s double sparked the offense before McMullen reached on an error and a sacrifice fly from Kramer Robertson scored two runs and the Tigers led 3-0 in the blink of an eye.
“A three run lead early puts a lot of pressure on the other team,” Maineiri said. “Kind of a formula in today’s era of college baseball, if you can get an early lead, it puts a lot of pressure on the other team to have to come from behind. It was a good formula for success tonight.”
A chief component to that formula was Moore, who notched his first multi-hit outing since Feb. 22 by going 2-4 and driving in LSU’s fifth and final run in the fifth inning.
Moore said his results Wednesday motivate him to move forward to the next game with confidence. Being able to lead all batters with two hits on a night in which the Tigers faced seven different Lamar pitchers will give Moore and LSU a boost going into this weekend’s SEC series against Arkansas, he said.
“It is [challenging] because sometimes you see one guy and you might do well and you might settle in,” Moore said. “It’s [important] especially in these midweek games going into SEC because SEC pitching, they’ll bring in good pitcher after good pitcher and you have to be ready for anything.”