Metairie, La. – In the 13th edition of a game honoring a former Tiger who wore No. 31, No. 10 LSU and Louisiana-Lafayette combined for 13 runs, going blow for blow through the first four and a half innings.
Unlike most of last weekend’s series against Alabama, the Tigers struck while the iron was hot in the bottom of the fifth inning, delivering the final three-run punch.
Backed behind three shutdown innings of relief pitching to close the game, LSU used a 6-for-12 clip of runners in scoring position to beat the Ragin’ Cajuns, 8-5, in the Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic at Zephyr Field.
The Tigers’ one-two punch junior shortstop Kramer Robertson and junior center fielder Jake Fraley combined to go 4-for-8 at the plate with four doubles and three RBIs. The first of two back-to-back doubles by the duo came with two outs in the third, which has been a point of emphasis for coach Paul Mainieri’s club.
“With two outs, it’s important for your veterans to step up, and I thought Jake and I did that tonight,” Robertson said. “It really ignited us. I’m glad we came out on top because ULL is always tough.”
While junior right-hander Alden Cartwright won his third game of the season in 1.1 innings of relief, freshman right-hander Cole McKay began the “Jack Wholestaff” pitching carrousel and delivered an eye-popping first two innings for the Tigers.
Making his first collegiate start, McKay showed flashes of dominance in the first inning, striking out the two and three-hole hitters on a breaking ball and 90-plus mile-per-hour fastball, respectively. But the 6-foot-5 hurler walked Ragin’ Cajun leadoff man Stefan Trosclair, and Trosclair later scored on two wild pitches.
Despite conceding a pair of singles in the top of the second, McKay escaped the frame by striking out the side, firing a 90 miles-per-hour fastball past UL-Lafayette nine-hole hitter Alex Pinero for his fifth punchout.
McKay completed his two-inning stint on 41 pitches, 24 of which went for strikes.
“All of [my pitches] felt good,” McKay said. “It took all of those pitches to get strikeouts that I needed. All of them worked off the fastball pretty well.”
Ragin’ Cajuns starting right-hander Evan Guillory worked two clean innings against the Tigers’ top six hitters, but designated hitter Brody Wofford got the LSU offense rolling with one out in the bottom of the third.
Wofford, a freshman making his first start, lined the first pitch he saw from Guillory up the middle. Though he was the victim of junior second baseman Cole Freeman’s fielder’s choice, Freeman swiped second base and scored on Robertson’s RBI double.
Again with two outs in the frame, Fraley traded places with Robertson, dropping an RBI double into left-center field to take a 2-1 lead.
With a combination of sophomore right-hander Doug Norman and senior lefty Hunter Devall, LSU retired the Cajuns in order in the third and fourth innings.
The shutdown innings by the relief pitchers gave way to more Tiger offense in the bottom half of the fourth, with help from the UL-Lafayette defense.
With the bases loaded and two outs, sophomore first baseman Bryce Jordan, who reached on an infield single, scored on a wild pitch. Freeman then plated both runners in scoring position with a single, giving the Tigers a four-run cushion.
The Ragin’ Cajuns wouldn’t go quietly, however.
Junior right-handed reliever Russell Reynolds replaced Norman after a leadoff double, and UL-Lafayette produce game-tying, four-run fifth inning.
UL-Lafayette right fielder Steven Sensley blasted a three-run shot with two outs and a full count, but Reynolds induced an inning-ending ground out to prevent further damage.
“Honestly, I just think it was a great at-bat by Steve Sensley,” Mainieri said. “He battled Reynolds. We tried to get a fastball in on him, and he missed a little bit over the plate. He did what good hitters do.”
But LSU struck back quickly in the bottom half of the inning, using a similar formula. Robertson and Fraley each hit doubles, and Fraley scored on a sacrifice fly by junior left fielder Beau Jordan.
Fraley reached third base via a fielder’s choice by freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis, whose hitting streak ended at 19 games. Moving a runner to third base with less than two outs has been the focus in practice recently, Fraley said.
“It’s cool to see us as a team work on those things in practice for so long, and the coaches harp on them and harp on them,” Fraley said. “And finally in a game, especially the next game after that practice, we’re able to put it to work and see the progress that we made.”
LSU added a third and final run in the fifth on sophomore third baseman Greg Deichmann’s RBI single up the middle. Deichmann was making his first start at third base of his LSU career.
Cartwright provided another valuable shutdown inning for the Tigers, fanning three of the four batters he faced in an 1.1 innings. On all three of the strikeouts, the batter went down looking.
Following Cartwright, a trio of relievers – junior right-hander Parker Bugg, junior right-hander Hunter Newman and sophomore right-hander Jesse Stallings – retired the final eight batters of the game to seal the victory.