For his second straight start, the LSU lineup failed to plate a run behind junior pitcher Alex Lange.
Despite a strong outing on the mound from Lange (3-3), LSU lost 4-0 to Texas A&M in the opener of its three game series on Thursday night.
Lange went eight innings, allowing nine hits, two earned runs, one walk and 12 strikeouts.
The bats in the LSU lineup couldn’t back him up.
The Tigers combined to bat 4-for-29 as a team.
“We obviously were in a bit of a rut offensively,” coach Paul Mainieri said. “We just need to come out of it. Alex Lange was phenomenal tonight. He gave us a chance to win.”
Lange made sure his teammates don’t take all of the blame.
“I’ll never fault my offense for swinging the bat and going out there and competing,” Lange said. “That’s the last thing I want to do. I thought we swung the bats tremendous tonight. I thought we hit some balls hard, but we hit them right at guys.”
Both offenses remained stagnant through four innings, with four hits from the Aggies, and only two from the Tigers, who failed to place a runner in scoring position until the ninth inning.
Texas A&M put an end to that in the fifth inning.
A&M’s Coll Stanley singled into center field off of Lange and advanced to second on a throwing error. Lange then gave up his fourth home run of the year to A&M’s Nick Choruby, and the Aggies jumped ahead 2-0.
LSU’s starting pitchers have now combined to allow 15 home runs this season.
The Aggies nearly added onto their lead in the sixth inning.
After singles from Joel Davis and Blake Kopetsky, the duo moved to second and third base on a wild pitch with one out. Lange rebounded with back-to-back strikeouts to end the side and avoid a rally from the Aggies.
A&M’s starting pitcher, Brigham Hill, was dealing.
The freshman went eight innings with three hits, no earned runs, two walks, seven strikeouts and retired 10 straight LSU batters between the third and sixth inning.
LSU drew its first base runner since the third inning in the seventh when Duplantis led off with a walk.
Freshman pitcher Matthew Beck took over for Lange in the ninth inning and Texas A&M loaded the bases. A&M’s Cole Bedford singled to bring in two more runs to break the game open for the Aggies, 4-0.
Freshman pitcher Nick Bush came on to get the final two outs for the Tigers.
LSU faces Texas A&M again on Friday night at 8 p.m. at Alex Box Stadium. The game will be broadcasted on ESPNU.
