LSU junior starter Cody Glenn didn’t have the sharpest debut start when the Tigers travelled to a record-breaking crowd at Southeastern Louisiana University, but his offense provided the proper support in a 7-3 victory Wednesday night.
For five innings, SLU (2-2) gave its school-record crowd, 3,747 fans, a reason to believe in an upset victory. LSU (4-0) came into the matchup with 33 straight regular season midweek victories, and it defeated the Lions 13-1 last season.
“[The atmosphere] was cool,” said junior right fielder Jared Foster. “It was almost like a [Southeastern Conference] environment. The fans were yelling, and they were right on top of you. It was great, and the environment kept us in the game.”
SLU struck first after hitting two straight singles to lead off the bottom of the first inning. After a sacrifice bunt to put both Lion runners in scoring position, junior right fielder Andrew Godbold roped an RBI single to give his squad a 1-0 lead.
But the Tigers wouldn’t be held down for long.
In the top of the second, LSU sophomore catcher Chris Chinea hit a one-out double to left field, then junior first baseman Tyler Moore followed with an RBI double to right-center field.
Foster, who came into the game batting .077 through three contests, proceeded to hit a bullet single past the Lions’ third baseman, giving LSU a 2-1 lead. He finished with two RBI base hits in the game.
After the Lions tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers immediately responded for the second time on Wednesday.
Sophomore left fielder Mark Laird led off the top of the sixth with a walk, then sophomore shortstop Alex Bregman was hit by a pitch. Junior second baseman Conner Hale hit a single to load the bases, and two batters later, both Laird and Bregman came home on a wild pitch and an error by the catcher.
Foster would later add an RBI single, and Moore scored on a balk to make it 6-2 LSU.
Meanwhile, Glenn tossed five innings of three-run baseball (one earned), striking out three and walking one, and picking up the win.
“I felt good,” Glenn said. “I felt like I was filling up the zone low early. I had a couple of bad breaks, but that’s baseball, so I wasn’t too worried about it. I hammered my sinker ball in there for the majority of time. … And I was throwing my curve ball a little more, too.”
The Houston native induced seven ground ball outs, letting his defense play efficiently behind him. Only Bregman recorded an error in the bottom of the sixth.
Hale, sophomore centerfielder Andrew Stevenson and senior third baseman Christian Ibarra all flashed solid glove work over the nine-inning affair.
Overall, LSU coach Paul Mainieri said his squad played well in every facet of the game.
“I think we did a lot of aspects of the game really well tonight,” Mainieri said. “We had three two-out RBI hits, which was nice to see. I thought our bullpen was outstanding, our starting pitcher was really good and our defense was borderline spectacular.”