Prior to Saturday’s Alumni baseball game, LSU coaches stressed to the 2003 baseball team the importance of the exhibition. While most of the regular position players and pitchers would see limited action and newcomers would see a generous amount of playing time, the coaches said the team needed to play the game with the same intensity as a regular season game.
The Tigers responded Saturday with a 8-4 come-from-behind win over the LSU Alumni led for the most part by new members of the team.
Led by true freshman catcher Matt Liuzza and sophomore junior college transfers Quinn Stewart, Ryan Patterson and Bruce Sprowl, LSU rallied from a 4-2 sixth inning deficit in the final three innings while five pitchers held the Alumni bats in check.
“We had some good swings,” said LSU coach Smoke Laval. “That’s what counts. Our outs were hard. We got the fat end [of the bat] through the [strike] zone tonight. I was pleased with that. We pitched well. We played pretty good defense.”
After closing to 4-3 on Liuzza’s RBI groundout in the sixth, the Tigers tied the game in the seventh when Stewart greeted former LSU pitcher Brad David’s fastball with an opposite field home run over the right field fence to tie the game.
Stewart — who transferred to LSU from Odessa Junior College, where he hit .420 with 18 home runs and 74 RBIs — said he expected the fastball but swung late.
“I was looking for a fastball to jump on early in the count,” he said. “I got the fastball; he left it up and away. It did get by me a bit, but I was able to catch up and drive it out.”
LSU unloaded on 2001 pitcher Jason Scobie for four runs in the bottom of the eight highlighted by Liuzza’s 2-run triple to right-center field and RBI doubles from Patterson and Jon Zeringue.
Sprowl, who hit 3-for-4, got the big inning started with a base hit to left and scored the tie-breaking run on Zeringue’s double. Zeringue hit 2-for-2 and forced two walks.
“I felt real relaxed,” Sprowl said. “As soon as I started taking swings I felt good. I just wanted to try and get on base and work the count and see what could happen. I feel like everybody played great. Everybody did a good job.”
Pitcher Jason Determann, who received a medical redshirt last season for an elbow injury, pitched a scoreless seventh and picked up the win for LSU. Scobie took the loss for the Alumni.
Junior Nate Bumstead, who started the game and is expected to compete for a midweek starting job, pitched two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, followed by two innings from junior Billy Sadler and freshman Justin Meier.
Sadler gave up one run while Meier gave up three.
Sophomore Jordan Faircloth and junior Brandon Nall each worked an inning for LSU.
Former Tigers Brad Cresse, Brad Hawpe, Matt Heath and Ryan Theriot each had RBIs for the Alumni team. Also, the Alumni team used a different pitcher for the first seven inning and used two pitchers in the eighth for a total of nine pitchers on the night.
Overall, Laval was pleased with the performance of the 2003 team but said he is eager to see how the team responds this week in practice before the season opener Friday against Northwestern State.
“It’s not how you play,” Laval said. “It’s the trials and tribulations. Not to get too high when you win and not to get too low when you get beat, which is tough to do. These are 18,19, 20-year olds.”