The Baton Rouge weather was not the only thing to cool off over the past few days – the LSU baseball team’s bats did too. In their first game since this past weekend’s series, in which the Tigers scored 44 total runs on 48 hits, LSU (8-1) scored only five runs in its 5-3 victory against Michigan State (3-5) on Tuesday night in Alex Box Stadium. “We had many opportunities in the game where we didn’t come through on offense,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “It wasn’t a tremendously played game by us, but all in all we found a way to win in the end and that’s something to build upon.” The Spartans scored first in the second inning when junior leftfielder Johnny Lee crossed the plate after LSU third baseman Michael Hollander committed an error while attempting to throw out the batter headed to first. LSU answered back in the bottom half of the inning when freshman shortstop DJ LeMahieu singled into center field and scored freshman right fielder Leon Landry. Neither team scored again until the sixth inning when LeMahieu ripped a bases-loaded single. Two runners scored to put the Tigers up 3-1. “I’m feeling more and more comfortable at the plate,” LeMahieu said. “We faced some adversity with those errors, and we came back and got some clutch hitting. It’s big for us to do that.” The Spartans added another run in the top of the next inning when freshman first baseman Tyler Newsome hit an RBI single to centerfield to score freshman shortstop Jonathan Roof and bring Michigan State to within one run. Junior designated hitter Kyle Day’s bloop single over LeMahieu’s outstretched glove scored junior catcher Eric Roof and tied the score at 3-3 in the eighth inning. Hollander atoned for his early error in the bottom of the inning when he knocked a two-RBI single into shallow center field and scored Lemahieu and sophomore catcher Sean Ochinko to put LSU up 5-3. “I forgot about [the error],” Hollander said. “That’s the way baseball is. That always seems to happen. Somebody who boots a ball or throws one away in the early part of the game always seems to come up in a clutch situation.” Hollander was 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs. Lemahieu was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and one run scored. LSU closer freshman Daniel Bradshaw (1-0) got the win for the Tigers, striking out three of the four batters he faced in 1 1/3 innings of work. The Tigers conclude their midweek series with the Spartans today at 3 p.m.
—-Contact Johanathan Brooks at [email protected]