Three’s a charm.
After losing three-straight to Kansas last weekend, No. 12 LSU returned to the diamond Tuesday night and scored three runs in each of three separate innings — the third, fifth and eighth innings — to soundly whip Louisiana-Monroe, 9-4, before 2,597 fans at Alex Box Stadium.
After earning his first win a week ago in LSU’s 15-0 win over Centenary, Tigers freshman pitcher Justin Meier (2-0, 0.90 ERA) pitched five innings and only gave up three hits and one run and picked up the win for LSU.
Meier said his first start at Alex Box Stadium was a memorable one.
“I felt pretty good,” Meier said. “I was throwing my ‘A’ game. My arm felt good. It’s been a week since I’ve thrown so my arm felt 100 percent. It’s definitely a great experience pitching here. I look forward to future starts.”
Meier only ran into trouble from the Indians lineup in two innings. He escaped a runner on third, one out situation in the bottom of the first unscathed. In the fifth, after giving up a solo home run to Indians catcher Joey Wolfe, he escaped from a first and second, one out situation thanks to a double play started by third baseman Aaron Hill.
Junior right-hander Billy Sadler pitched the sixth while Nate Bumstead pitched the seventh and eighth innings, and Brandon Nall threw a perfect ninth inning.
LSU coach Smoke Laval was pleased to get each pitcher some work.
“It was nice to see Meier throw nice back-to-back games that keep us in the ballgame,” Laval said. “It was nice to see Bumstead get back and throw 24 pitches. I’d like to get Nall more work than nine pitches. The main thing was we wanted to try and get his velocity back up to 88 and 90 [mph].”
LSU center fielder J.C. Holt’s RBI groundout broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning off ULM starter and losing pitcher Ryan Schwabe (1-1).
Quinn Stewart then blasted a Schwabe changeup over the left center field fence for a two-run home run to give LSU a 3-0 lead.
“He left it up,” Stewart said of his second home run of the season. “Right now, I am just kind of in one of those zones where the ball looks big.”
The Tigers put another three spot on the board and led 6-1 after the fifth, highlighted by a two-run double by right fielder Jon Zeringue.
The Indians narrowed the score to 6-4 in the sixth when Billy Sadler walked in a run and Zeringue dropped a routine fly ball in right field which scored two runs that would have ended the inning with the score 6-2.
The Tigers slammed the door on any Indians’ comeback with three more runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Left fielder Ryan Patterson doubled to left center field, and second baseman Ivan Naccarata drove him in with an RBI triple to center. Naccarata scored on Matt Horwath’s sacrifice fly, and Holt drove in Bruce Sprowl with an RBI double to left.
Despite scoring nine runs, the Tigers only mustered seven hits on the night, but they also forced ULM pitchers into seven walks.
“Too many base runners, too much offensive pressure that we allowed them to have,” said ULM head coach Brad Holland. “We were doing a good job early on about not putting extra base runners on base, and today the pressure got to them a little bit. That’s why we come down here to put the kids in an atmosphere that’s going to be a regional site.”