After a long, stormy week, No. 6 LSU faced a rough night as Ball State rained home runs in a 7-1 loss for the Tigers on Friday night
“Honestly, it was just one of those nights when the other team played a lot better than we did,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “They deserved to win. They just whipped us tonight, and that does not happen very often.”
Ball State (8-7) got off to an early lead in the second inning with a solo homer by junior Jarett Rindfleisch, his first of the season.
After LSU’s (10-3) 1-2-3 inning, the Cardinals were able to extend their lead in the third.
Ball State senior second baseman Ryan Spaulding hit a single before junior right fielder Alex Call put the Cardinal’s up 3-0 on the second home run of the night.
“I give credit to those guys. They put good swings on those balls,” LSU junior starting pitcher Jared Poche’ said. “They definitely had a great gameplan, and they executed. From our standpoint, we have got to be better than that. We have got to execute pitches.”
The Tigers struggled to hit, giving up nine strikeouts and struggling in crucial moments. LSU was 0-9 hitting off of the lead batter and 0-7 with runners in scoring position.
The Tigers came close to bringing in runners in scoring position in the fifth inning.
Fraley and junior catcher Jordan Romero both singled, and sophomore leftfielder Beau Jordan was walked, which loaded the bases for sophomore designated hitter Bryce Jordan with two outs.
Bryce flied out to rightfield to retire the side.
“They capitalized when they had runners on, and when we had runners on, we could not capitalize,” Bryce said. “It was hard for us to get that lead off guy on.”
The Cardinals returned the favor in the top of the sixth with a second solo home run by Rindfleisch and a solo home run by junior Sean Kennedy to put Ball State up 5-0.
The Tigers finally got on board in the sixth after junior second baseman Cole Freeman brought in junior centerfielder Jake Fraley.
The Cardinals responded in the seventh after a hit by Call brought in a runner and an LSU error brought in Call, putting Ball State up by six to put the game away.
Poche’ had his first loss. Junior Kevin Marnon, who started for the Cardinals, got the win with four strikeouts and one earned run.
“[Marnon] made us look bad,” Bryce said. “Other than that, we were seeing him pretty well. He just got that better of us tonight.”
