No. 1 ranked LSU’s first conference baseball game of the year came against 8-8 Missouri.
LSU’s eventual win can best be credited to the offensive maturity of this lineup and stellar pitching from starter Kade Anderson.
“I think I hit my rhythm,” Anderson said.
LSU scored 12 runs on nine hits, while Kade Anderson, Connor Benge, DJ Primeaux, and Zac Cowan combined to lock down the win, holding the Missouri Tigers to just six hits and five runs.
After a scoreless first, Missouri’s Brock Daniels singled and got on base. Following suit, Jackson Lovich launches a home run midway up the right field Diamond Deck.
After a visit to the mound, Anderson settled in and was able to get out of the inning without any more damage.
In the bottom of the second, Josh Pearson is hit by a pitch as the leadoff man, bringing up Luis Hernandez with no outs.
Hernandez got a hold of one in an 0-2 count and ripped a 385-foot home run. It was an immediate response to Missouri and tied the game at 2-2. Emblematic of the Tigers’ timely offense.
In the bottom of the fourth, Josh Pearson got a leadoff single into left field, followed by a Michael Braswell III hit-by-pitch. Chris Stanfield was then walked to load the bases for freshman Derek Curiel.
On a 2-1 count, Curiel launches a ball into the right field corner and cleared the bases with a three-run triple.
As a freshman, Curiel leads the team in batting average (.450). He credits it to him being comfortable in the box, and forcing pitchers to throw his pitch, instead of theirs.
“I stick to my plan, no matter who’s throwing the pitch to me. Not getting caught up in the ‘names’. He has to face me too, that’s the approach I take,” Curiel said after his two run, two hit, three RBI day.
The Tigers would plate two more in the fourth, then two in the sixth from a Jake Brown double.
The change in the game came when Kade Anderson made his way out to the mound in the top of the seventh, his longest outing of the year. Anderson struggled early and walked two before head coach Jay Johnson made a call to the bullpen.
Anderson ended the day with 6.1 innings pitched, four hits, three runs, 11 strikeouts on 95 pitches.
Tiger fans, 11, 741 strong, gave him a standing ovation as he made his exit and Connor Benge came out to take the mound in a tough spot.
“Honestly, in the back of my head I’m kind of frustrated that I got the standing ovation even though I didn’t finish that seventh inning,” Anderson said.
Benge walks the bases loaded, a sacrifice fly scores one, but he earns a strikeout to get the Tigers out of the jam.
In the eighth, Benge gave up back-to-back home runs before Primeaux and Cowan both came to end a rocky frame for LSU. Missouri was within four.
An eight-pitch, five-minute at-bat for Derek Curiel resulted in a base hit that bounced its way over the Mizzou first baseman.
Missouri’s outfield lost a Daniel Dickinson fly ball in the air and resulted in a double.
Shortly after, Jake Brown hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Curiel and advancing Dickinson to third.
Steven Milam then cleared the bases for his fifth home run of the year. The homer got LSU to a much more comfortable seven run lead.
With some help from his defense, Zac Cowan closes out the game for the Tigers as they log their first SEC win of the season.
Jake Brown also ended the night 2-for-2 with four RBI and a double, despite not getting the start.
The Tigers’ consistency defensively, poise at the plate and a strong start from Anderson earned a 12-5 win. LSU will look to continue their 13-game winning streak tomorrow night at 6 p.m. for the second game of the series.
