LSU dominated every facet of Tuesday’s matchup against Nicholls State and walked away with a 10-1 victory.
Midweek starter AJ Labas worked with coach Alan Dunn on trying to raise his velocity for the Nicholls game. Labas remained and hovered in the 88-90 mph range but took care of business early, allowing three baserunners through three innings with no runs.
LSU (19-11, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) was in business in the second inning with Beau Jordan and Daniel Cabrera each reaching base on with walks and no outs. First baseman Bryce Jordan connected on a single that brought his brother home giving LSU the 1-0 edge after two innings.
“It was a good, solid win tonight,” Mainieri said. “We had several good at bats and it was nice to see Bryce Jordan have a big night. It was a good tune up for this weekend in College Station.”
Back-to-back homeruns in the third on consecutive pitches to center fielder Zach Watson and second baseman Austin Bain extended the Tiger lead to 3-0 in the third as a mini home run derby commenced.
Nicholls scraped together a run in the fifth as Labas struggled with location on some of his pitches.  Labas allowed one run on three hits in the inning as LSU led 4-1 mid fifth inning.
Labas was replaced in the sixth by sophomore Matthew Beck and finished with one earned run, five hits and two strikeouts.
Beck, sophomore Todd Peterson and junior Cam Sanders combined for three scoreless innings and LSU closed with Bain. Maineri said Bain would pitch tonight no matter the circumstance as he hadn’t pitched in nearly two weeks.
Despite a 45 minute weather delay in the fifth inning, the Tiger offense was still red hot, scoring three runs on two hits as they nearly batted around the rotation. Bryce had a career high four hits with two doubles, also a career first.
“We came out with a plan,” Bryce said. “We’d go up there, hit the fastball, hit it to right so we did a great job of executing. Really proud of the team tonight.”
LSU will travel to College Station this weekend for a series with Texas A&M starting Friday at 7 p.m.