LSU baseball defeated Auburn 5-0 in a defensive thriller to open up the weekend series in Baton Rouge.
The purple and gold looked back in their championship form against the Tiger rivals, with tonight’s victory being the first time LSU won two SEC games in a row this season.
It was a slow start under the lights in Alex Box, with both teams going hitless until the fourth inning. With starting pitcher Gage Jump on the mound, LSU looked impenetrable on defense.
Jump put in seven innings of work, keeping his pitch count down and making Auburn test LSU’s defense. The field players stood strong behind their transfer pitcher, allowing only two hits in those seven innings and keeping Auburn scoreless.
Jump’s consistency at the mound kept the defensive action routine for his teammates, and he tallied six of his own strikeouts in another impressive Friday night start.
“Tonight, nobody around the country pitched better than that,” coach Jay Johnson said about Jump’s performance. “That’s a huge lift for our team and I’m super proud of him. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m the least surprised person in the country with what I’ve seen [from him] in the past two weeks.”
The pitching strength didn’t stop there, as Christian Little replaced Jump to finish the game, recording three straight strikeouts in the eighth inning and finishing LSU’s shutout with his fourth strikeout in the ninth.
Little’s time in Baton Rouge has been far from ideal since his transfer from Vanderbilt two years ago, but tonight showcased some vintage Little talent at the rubber.
On offense, the solo home runs once again opened the scoring for LSU, with Tommy White and Hayden Travinski each recording a dinger of their own.
White’s homer today marks his third in the last two games, with the All-American third baseman cementing himself as the Tigers’ best all-around hitter.
Following Travinski’s homer, LSU finally woke up at the plate, tallying seven hits in the last three innings, including a three run seventh inning fiasco.
Travinski started the bottom of the seventh with a single, followed by a Braswell single to put two on, and it was Alex Milazzo who hit a clutch two-RBI double to give LSU the cushion they needed heading into the final two innings.
Freshman Ashton Larson followed with an RBI single to finish the scoring for LSU, which allowed the Tigers to put Little on the mound to close the game with confidence.
Confidence is at a high following tonight’s win, with the season not going the way many had foreseen after a National Championship win, but the desire to succeed has not left LSU just yet.
“I’m more proud of the fact that when it could’ve been easy to pack things in, I’ve watched a lot of guys show up to the ballpark every day, still putting work in, still growing, and still competing,” Milazzo said about the team’s mindset through the adversity this season.
Tonight’s win puts LSU up 1-0 in the series, and the Tigers will return to play against Auburn Saturday and Sunday. The Tigers are still 13th in the SEC and out of SEC Tournament qualifications, but a series win this weekend could close the gap to send them to the post season tournament.
