Following their 7-6 comeback win against Notre Dame Friday night in the season opener, the Tigers entered Saturday’s game hoping for a less dramatic win. However, Notre Dame was able to build a bigger lead in game two of the weekend series. The Fighting Irish were up 8-1 through the first three innings. 
“Two nights in a row, we’ve gotten in a big whole, and tonight was just too much to dig out of,” LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said. The Tigers were building a comeback. In the next three innings, LSU scored four runs and didn’t give up another Notre Dame score until the ninth inning. 
“It looked like we were going to dig out of it there for a while. We got the game to a four-run game, and had second and third and two outs. We just couldn’t get that one hit to get us in striking distance,” Coach Mainieri said. 
Zack Hess struggled in Saturday’s game. He only played 2.1 innings before Coach Mainieri pulled him. The sophomore pitcher gave up eight runs, five hits and six walks, and he also had just two strikeouts. 
“It’s just one of those days. I couldn’t really get comfortable; couldn’t really get settled in. My command just really wasn’t there. I wasn’t commanding my fastball whatsoever. When you pitch behind the counts like that, you’re setting yourself up to be in a whole,” Hess said. 
The Tigers and Fighting Irish are tied 1-1 going into Sunday’s series finale, but Beau Jordan says LSU will need to have their top performance in order to win. 
“They think they can beat us, and they’ve beat our butts the last two nights. We need to come out and play our best ball tomorrow.”
First pitch for Sunday’s game is 11 a.m.