The LSU baseball team unveiled three new pitchers and welcomed back a former ace in beating the Tigers Alumni Team 8-2 before the 2,132 in attendance on Friday at Alex Box Stadium.
Lane Mestepey, a 2002 First Team All Southeastern Conference Selection, returned to the mound for the first time since the 2002 season and pitched two scoreless innings.
Mestepey, who sat out the 2003 season after undergoing shoulder surgery, walked out to the mound to a standing ovation. He struck out one and only surrendered two hits.
“I heard it and I appreciate that,” Mestepey said of the fans’ warm reception. “It means a lot to me.”
Mestepey said it felt good to get back out on the mound and face a quality lineup, including former LSU stars Todd Walker, Brad Cresse, Mike Fontenot and Ryan Theriot.
“I wasn’t trying to work on anything in particular, just trying to get into a groove and hit my spots,” Mestepey said. “I threw my curve ball where I wanted to and threw my change up a little bit. I think I still need to improve a little bit in some areas. Hopefully, I can do that in the next couple of outings.”
True freshman Michael Bonura made the start for the Tigers on the mound. He surrendered two runs in the first inning on a two-run single from Colorado Rockies prospect Brad Hawpe but settled down to pitch a scoreless second and third and earned the win.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Bonura said. “I got out there in the first inning and there were a couple of butterflies. I felt good. I wasn’t too nervous. I was just a little anxious.”
Mestepey followed Bonura in the fourth and fifth.
Redshirt junior Collin Smith pitched the sixth and seventh and struck out two.
Redshirt freshman Clay Dirks made his LSU debut by closing the game, striking out three in the eighth and working a perfect ninth.
“Dirks is going to be a quality pitcher for us,” Mestepey said. “He’s got a great curve ball and if he can control that and locate his fastball a little bit, he’s going to be a heck of a pitcher.”
Dirks also made an impression on former LSU shortstop and current Toronto Blue Jays prospect Aaron Hill, who fell victim to a Dirks’ strikeout in the eighth.
“He’s lights out,” Hill said. “I look forward to seeing that guy pitch. He’s going to go a long way.”
After falling behind 2-0 in the first, the current Tigers came back strong in the bottom half to tie the score.
Center fielder J.C. Holt walked and Ryan Patterson singled to open the inning. Both came around to score on an Ivan Naccarata RBI-ground out and RBI single by Nick Stavinoha.
Shortstop Matt Horwath roped an RBI single in the second, scoring Blake Gill to make it 3-2. Horwath would later add an RBI single in the sixth.
Leading 6-2 in the eighth, Patterson saw a 2-0 Randy Keisler fastball and sent it over the left field fence for a two-run home run.
“He threw me a fastball up in the zone and with a 2-0 count you’ve got to be ready for it,” Patterson said. “You can’t let a pitcher get away with a fastball like that.”
The Tigers roped 10 hits on the night while the pitchers only allowed seven.
“The pitchers competed and threw their good stuff in the zone,” said LSU coach Smoke Laval. “That part was good. I didn’t like our offense at times. But [the Alumni team] threw some pretty good guys. Those guys can all pitch. The stuff that went wrong is very correctable.”