The No. 1 LSU baseball team kept the late-inning dramatics on tap for another thriller, defeating No. 2 Texas A&M, 9-6, to take the pivotal Southeastern Conference series.
The Tigers (37-6, 14-5 SEC) battled back to defeat the Aggies (36-7, 12-7 SEC) after a shaky outing from freshman pitcher Alex Lange.
“Another exciting one at the Box,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “Another tremendous game, tremendous victory for our kids. Two teams just giving each other their best shot. We hung in there, and we kept battling. Even though Alex Lange wasn’t at his very best, he kept us in the game.”
Lange had his worst outing this season, going 5 ⅓ innings while allowing eight hits, five runs (four earned) with seven strikeouts and five walks.
Tonight marked only the second time in Lange’s career he has allowed more than two runs. The five walks mark the third time in the last four starts Lange has allowed five walks in a start.
“I didn’t execute pitches tonight, [I] under-performed,” Lange said. “When you pitch with that kind of stress on the basepaths against a team like that, they’re going to hurt you, and that’s what happened.”
The freshman right-hander escaped with a no-decision thanks to a four-run rally from the Tigers’ offense in the bottom of the seventh inning. LSU led off the seventh with back-to-back singles before senior second baseman Jared Foster got the rally started with a one-run single through the right side to cut the Aggies’ lead to 5-3.
Senior designated hitter Chris Sciambra executed a bunt right in front of the plate to score sophomore left fielder Jake Fraley from third to cut the A&M lead to 5-4, reaching safely on the play.
With men on first and second and one gone, junior shortstop Alex Bregman produced an All-American at-bat to give the Tigers their first lead since the second inning. Bregman fought off nine pitches before roping a two-run double down the left-field line on the 10th to punctuate the rally and give the Tigers a 6-5 lead.
“I was so excited,” said Bregman, who finished 2-for-4 on the night with two RBIs. “It was a blast. This atmosphere is crazy, and we fed off of it. It’s just an honor to play for LSU . Being able to come through in a moment like that is second to none.”
The Tigers added three more runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a commanding 9-5 lead for sophomore pitcher Hunter Newman to close out.
The Aggies jumped ahead of the Tigers early for the second straight night. After putting up two runs in the first two innings on sophomore pitcher Jared Poche’ Thursday night, Texas A&M kept aggressive against Lange tonight.
The Aggies got right to Lange, ripping a single through the right side for a leadoff single. Senior designated hitter Mitchell Nau came through two batters later with an executed hit-and-run attempt through the right side to put runners on the corners with one away.
Junior Logan Taylor, the Aggies’ clean-up man, delivered the opening blow in the next at-bat to give Texas A&M yet another early 1-0 lead in the first inning.The Aggies threatened to put more on the board with the bases loaded and two gone, but Lange battled through the jam to leave the bases occupied.
The Tigers responded to Lange’s resiliency with a run of their own in the bottom of the first. After two quick outs from LSU’s one and two batters, Bregman produced a single and a stolen base to put himself in scoring position with two away.
Senior third baseman Conner Hale took advantage of Bregman’s aggressiveness with a one-run single through the right side to tie the score up at one through an inning of play.
Lange locked in after giving up three hits in the first, getting the first two batters he faced to strikeout looking in a three-up, three-down second frame. LSU responded to Lange’s dominance with another run in the second on a one-run single up the middle from Fraley to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead after two.
“We think of ourselves as a very high-caliber hitting team, so when [Texas A&M starting pitcher Ryan Hendrix] constantly goes to the slider, eventually we’re going to be able to come around and that’s what we did,” Fraley said. “We were able to string together a couple of hits.”
LSU didn’t keep the Aggies quiet for long, and they tied the game back up at two in the top of third with a two-out rally against Lange. Lange retired the first two batters in the frame before giving up a double and a walk to set up the game tying one-run single from sophomore third baseman Ronnie Gideon.
The wheels began to come off for Lange in the top of the fourth. Junior center fielder J.B. Moss lead off the inning for the Aggies with a routine bunt back to Lange, but the freshman sailed the put-out attempt over the head of junior first baseman Chris Chinea.
Moss reached safely and advanced to second on the play.
Lange continued to work himself into a hole, allowing Moss to advance to third on a wild pitch before giving up a one-run double down the right field line from senior shortstop Blake Allemand. Allemand tried to stretch the hit into a triple, but to no avail, giving Lange the second out of the inning and keeping the runner out of scoring position.
“[Lange] battled hard tonight,” Mainieri said. “He wasn’t particularly sharp … but they’re a good hitting team. They’ll make you work. Alex pitched very courageously. He hung in there . He got some big outs or they would have scored some more runs. He’ll continue to get better, but you can’t expect that kid to be perfect. It was a very courageous effort by him.”
The Tigers have a chance to sweep the Aggies when Game 3 gets underway at 1 p.m. Saturday. While LSU has the series in hand, Lange said the Tigers plan to go for the kill in Saturday’s contest.
“We want the sweep,” Lange said. “We’re going for the neck on this one. We’re up two games to none and we have a chance to be up three games in the division, and at this time of the year, that’s what we need. We need to really buckle down tomorrow.”