The LSU baseball team wasted no time putting its hitting problems from the weekend behind them against Grambling State, out-slugging the visiting Tigers, 17-10, Tuesday night.
In the second inning alone, LSU put up six runs — one more run than it scored all weekend against Appalachian State.
“The pitching was not as challenging as we faced last weekend, but still, it was good to see some guys get some hits and hit the ball hard,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “We hit a lot of line drives and some in the gaps, which was nice to see.”
LSU entered the game leading the Southeastern Conference with four triples this season, and added to its total Tuesday night, racking up three triples in the eighth inning.
“We came out and scored consistently throughout the whole game, which is good to see our whole lineup hitting,” said junior first baseman Mason Katz. “It’s great to get a lot of guys in there.”
Junior right fielder Raph Rhymes had a memorable night at the plate, racking up a career-bests in RBIs (6) and hits (4).
“I’ve got to give it to the guys in front of me,” Rhymes said. “They got on base and got into scoring position and without them, I wouldn’t have been able to drive them in.”
Despite finding a fix for its hitting woes, LSU couldn’t find much consistency on the mound.
LSU freshman pitcher Cody Glenn came out fast in his first career start but couldn’t maintain his initial domination.
Glenn struck out the first four batters of the game, the first three looking.
But Glenn quickly ran into trouble. He gave up four earned runs, eight hits and six strikeouts in his 3 1/3 innings of work.
“He threw a lot of strikes,” Mainieri said. “We’re happy about that, but it just seemed like after those first four batters, he couldn’t quite put guys away.”
LSU and Grambling combined for a 34 hits off 11 different pitchers.
“These mid-week games can get crazy sometimes,” Mainieri said. “We struck out a lot of their batters, but they seemed to be tough outs against our pitchers as well. We’re kind of happy we can finally take a breath after nine innings.”
Sophomore pitcher Joe Broussard relieved Glenn in the fourth, but gave up four runs in 2 2/3 innings pitched.
Junior pitcher Kevin Berry also chipped in with 1 2/3 innings of work, giving up two runs.
Mainieri said LSU was short on pitchers because junior Joey Bourgeious and junior Nick Goody were absent because of “flu-like symptoms,” which led him to extend Broussard and Berry’s outings.
The Tigers head to McNeese State tonight for LSU’s first road game, where freshman pitcher Aaron Nola will get his first career start.
Nola has pitched five innings this season, giving up one run and notching eight strikeouts in his three relief efforts this season.
In LSU’s first meeting with McNeese this season, the Cowboys hung with the Tigers until a five-run sixth inning broke the game open for LSU to take an 11-4 win.
 
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