After a night of offensive struggles for the Tigers (2-0) in their season opener, both ends of the lineup came alive to spark a 7-4 victory against the University of New Orleans at Zephyr Field in Metairie, La., on Saturday.
On Friday night against UNO (0-2), junior outfielder and leadoff hitter Sean McMullen had a hitless performance. His confidence shifted on Saturday, though, after hitting two singles and a double.
With two runners in scoring position and two outs in the top of the third inning, McMullen laced an RBI single to center field to give LSU a 2-1 lead.
Junior second baseman Conner Hale was also effective from the No. 9 spot in the lineup. The junior college transfer had two hits in his Tiger debut on Friday night, and he followed with two singles and an RBI on Saturday.
Sophomore shortstop Alex Bregman stayed red hot at the plate, picking up two base hits and an RBI.
“The wind was blowing in, so we knew we had no shot of hitting the ball out of the yard,” Bregman said. “We had success hitting the ball on the line and on the ground, and we need to stick to that approach for the rest of the year. It was more aggressive approach to the top-half of the baseball.”
Even junior right fielder Jared Foster got his first hit of the 2014 campaign, an RBI double that gave LSU a 7-1 lead in the top of the sixth.
The squad finished with 13 hits, eight from the triple threat of McMullen, Bregman and Hale.
Southpaw junior starter Kyle Bouman (1-0) took the mound for the first time in his LSU career and settled down after a rocky first inning. With two outs, UNO hit three straight singles to give the Privateers a 1-0 lead early.
Bouman proceeded to toss five innings, surrendering only three hits and one run with one strikeout.
He retired the final 13 UNO hitters he faced.
“I thought Kyle did a good job,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “It was his first start for the Tigers in a big game, and I thought he went out there and did a nice job. In that first inning, he had three hits in a row off of him to score the run, but after that he started getting the ball down on the knees and changing speeds. We gave him a lead, and I thought he pitched well with it.”
The Tiger bullpen wasn’t nearly as efficient, as JUCO transfers Brady Domangue and Henri Faucheux combined to surrender 3 runs on one hit and four walks in the bottom of the sixth inning.
LSU fans got quite the scare in the bottom of the ninth, as UNO came to the plate trailing 7-4.
Freshman reliever Parker Bugg went to the mound in the ninth and loaded the bases, but UNO failed to capitalize as Bugg struck out the side.
“I thought we had it under control the whole time,” Bregman said. “I had confidence in Parker Bugg. I wasn’t very worried at all.”