LSU sophomore designated hitter Blake Dean and junior first baseman Matt Clark continued their recent power surge Saturday night. But the sluggers also received a fair share of help as the Tigers pounded their way past Southern Miss.
Most of that help – and nearly half the Tigers’ hits – came from the young bottom third of the order – freshman shortstop DJ LeMahieu, freshman center fielder Leon Landry and sophomore second baseman Ryan Schimpf.
“When you’ve got guys like Clark and Dean in the lineup hitting the way they are, you just try to find a way on-base,” LeMahieu said.
And LeMahieu, Landry and Schimpf found several ways on-base and several ways to help lead LSU to a 13-4 victory.
After two innings without an LSU base runner, it was the young trio that got things going for the Tigers’ offense in the top of the third.
After a leadoff walk to LeMahieu, Landry chopped a ball into right field to put runners at the corners with no outs.
Schimpf followed by grounding into a double play, but LeMahieu scored on the play to put the Tigers ahead, 1-0.
“I think [No.] 1 through [No.] 9, if you’ve got a good hitter in each of those spots, there’s just no break for the pitcher,” said LSU coach Paul Maineiri. “He may pitch around one guy or get one guy out, but then there’s another one lurking that’s going to get the job done.”
After Dean and Clark stretched the lead with a pair of home runs in the fourth inning, LeMahieu and Landry teamed up for another score as Landry drove LeMahieu home with a double to the right field corner, stretching the LSU lead to 5-0.
The young Tigers capitalized on more Southern Miss mistakes four innings later to stretch the Tigers’ lead in the top of the eighth inning.
The Tigers began the eighth ahead 8-4 and quickly picked up two outs.
LeMahieu seemed to be the third out as he grounded to the Golden Eagles’ third baseman. But the Tigers’ No. 7 batter reached second after two errors on a bobble and an overthrow.
Landry was hit by a pitch in the next at-bat, and Schimpf drove both runners home on a double to make LSU’s lead 10-4.
“[LeMahieu, Landry and Schimpf] aren’t easy outs,” Maineiri said. “When you’ve got a nine-hole hitter that hits the way Ryan Schimpf hits, and Leon Landry, who I think is going to be off the charts as a player before his career is done here, that’s a pretty good third of the lineup to have in those 7, 8 and 9 spots.”
Only Dean, Clark and the bottom-three batters picked up hits before senior third baseman Michael Hollander followed the Schimpf hit with a two-run homer to right field in the eighth.
LeMahieu, Landry and Schimpf were a combined 5-for-9 on the day with three RBIs and six runs scored.
LeMahieu also walked once and reached on the error in the eighth, and Landry reached in the eighth when he was hit by a pitch.
In addition, Landry came up big on defense with a diving catch in center field in the bottom of the fifth to help limit a Golden Eagles’ rally.
“Defensively, we made some spectacular plays again,” Maineiri said. “It kind of reminded me a little bit of the game last week at the [Southeastern Conference] tournament against Vanderbilt when we made all those great plays. And we had several highlight reel plays again tonight.”
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]