The No. 2 LSU baseball team avenged last week’s midweek loss, routing Southeastern Louisiana, 9-8, on Thursday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (7-1) continued their hot streak in the batter’s box with 13 hits, three of which went for extra bases. While the Tigers maintained success on offense, they let the Lions (5-4) creep back into a game that seemed to be otherwise in hand.
“It was a rather interesting game,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but we found a way to win.”
Lions pitcher Domenick Carlini started the game retiring four of the first five Tiger batters he faced before the Tigers, led by senior catcher Kade Scivicque, went on a two-out rally. The next three LSU batters would single safely to load the bases for sophomore second baseman Kramer Robertson.
Carlini fell into a quick hole against Robertson, eventually walking him on a 3-1 count to score Scivicque and tie the game up at one. But the Tigers would leave the bases loaded on the next batter when senior right fielder Jared Foster popped up to the second baseman.
The result was nothing new for the Tigers, who lost to Nicholls State, 6-3, a little more than a week ago. LSU stranded six runners in the first two innings on back-to-back bases loaded situations.
But LSU’s lack of offensive execution last week wouldn’t come back to haunt them.
The Tigers’ bats jumped on Carlini early in the bottom of the third. After juniors Mark Laird and Alex Bregman reached safely to start the inning, junior designated hitter Chris Chinea roped a line drive single to left, scoring both Laird and Bregman for an early 3-1 lead.
Foster later slapped a two-run double off the left field wall to extend the Tigers’ lead to 7-1, chasing Carlini off the mound after also giving up a Scivicque sac fly and a Robertson RBI single in the inning.
But the Lions wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Southeastern roared back to cut the Tigers’ lead to one on a five-run fifth inning with three hits and a wild pitch by sophomore reliever Parker Bugg.
Southeastern continued the rally, tallying two runs with two outs in the top of the seventh to cap off the improbable comeback and reclaim the lead at 8-7.
LSU senior reliever Zac Person, who replaced Bugg with the bases loaded and two outs, walked home the tying run for the Lions before throwing a pitch away from Scivicque and giving the Lions the lead.
“It was a strange game,” Mainieri said. “I don’t think we pitched particularly well. We gave them four, five runs really. We walked in two runs, and I think we wild pitched in two runs. We need to be better than that.”
The Lions’ rally put the pressure on the Tigers, but it wasn’t enough to put them away.
Southeastern was unable to gain insurance in the eighth, leaving the bases loaded and failing to score headed into the bottom of the inning. LSU sophomore left fielder Jake Fraley sent a two-run triple down the right field line to give the Tigers the lead for good.
“It’s great to get a big win like this with an in-state team,” Fraley said. “They always play us hard. The only thing I can say is it’s truly a blessing.”
The Tigers now have a quick turnaround as they are faced with playing Princeton tonight at 7 p.m. at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU sophomore pitcher Jared Poche’ takes the mound for Game 1, earning another shot at being the Friday night man for the Tigers moving forward with freshmen Alex Lange and Jake Godfrey to follow in Games 2 and 3.
You can reach Jack Chascin on Twitter @chascin_TDR.