Once the clouds opened up on Saturday afternoon, it was all sunshine for LSU.
LSU entered the day with a chance to take the season series versus Missouri and took advantage of the opportunity to win its first SEC series.
While this is far from one of the strongest groups that Tigers head coach Jay Johnson has coached, that sentiment was immediately challenged by his team’s performance at the plate.
A walk from leadoff hitter Derek Curiel set up Josh Pearson two batters later. Pearson launches a two-run homer to give LSU the first lead of the evening.
Anthony Eyanson goes three up and three down in the top of the second inning, striking out two batters and finishing the third with a pop fly. It allowed LSU to settle into its game and give its offense a chance to rev up its engines.
In the bottom of the second, Jake Brown connects on a pitch as the ball hangs in the air and drops right before the left field wall and the outfield dirt. Brown sprints to third and slides; he’s safe.
Another two batters later, Michael Braswell III sacrifices himself with a bunt to give LSU an early 3-0 lead.
After a pair of Missouri singles, a stolen base and a walk, Eyanson finds himself in hot water with the bases loaded. “Geaux Tigers!” chants echo throughout Alex Box Stadium. Fans get to their feet as Eyanson stares down home plate.
But Cayden Nicoletto answers the bell for Missouri, sacrificing himself on a fly out to score teammate Pierre Seals. Eyanson escaped the third inning on the next pitch thanks to a Brock Daniels pop fly.
At the top of the third, all three LSU batters go down on pop flies as momentum shifts in Missouri’s direction.
With two Missouri players on base and only needing one out, Eyanson returns to the plate, but he can’t get away this time.
Keegan Knutson couldn’t have hit his first home run of the season at a better time, knocking one into left-center field to score two others and give Missouri 4-3. What once looked like a potential ballooning lead that could get out of hand swiftly became a one-run deficit for LSU.
But when LSU’s defense hasn’t been able to pull its weight, its offense has been able to turn up the heat, put pressure on opposing pitchers and recover.
It happened again when Missouri freshman pitcher Wil Libbert slipped up in the bottom of the fourth inning. Libbert walks Stevem Milam and hits Brown to put two on base for LSU. Braswell goes back to work with another bunt to score Milam and draw the game at 4-4.
With the game level, Libbert fails to make the correct call on a fielder’s choice and hits Milam, his second hit batter of the inning, to load the bases for LSU. It was the last straw for Missouri head coach Kerrick Jackson, who, like Johnson, pulled his starting pitcher after a collapse in the fourth inning.
Jared Jones singles into center field to bat in Chris Stanfied and Braswell and helps LSU retake a two-run lead on Brock Lucas’ second pitch of the night.
“Bras, how many times have you worked on a zero push here in two years?” Johnson asked Braswell after the game.
“Countless,” Braswell said.
“30,000?” Johnson said.
“Yeah,” Braswell responded.
While Conner Ware hit a batter of his own, his relatively clean inning left LSU unscathed, holding on to a 6-4 lead headed into the fifth.
Every time LSU needed a runner brought home, Braswell would be the one to do it. His third RBI of the night scored Milam on a single to extend the lead to 7-4.
“I’ve always been a guy that [tries] to move offense along and keep the offense moving help and us win no matter what I can,” Braswell said. “If I’m not hitting, I want to play great defense. If I have to put a punt down, I’ll put a bunt down, and I’ll do whatever coach asked me to do.”
“The homer actually caught me off guard a little bit because I thought his stuff looked so crisp and so sharp,” Johnson said. “He’ll learn from that, and the good news is he’s good enough that he’ll take that and use tonight’s struggle if you want to call it that and turn it into a positive.”
Primeaux was far from pitching in a comfortable situation. He hit Nicoletto on his fifth pitch to load the basses for the second time tonight. A double play surrenders a run as Johnson goes to his bullpen for the fifth and final time of the night.
Casan Evans checked in and downed Jackson Lovich to send it to the bottom of the seventh, where LSU’s batting consisted of a Brown foul out, a Luis Hernandez ground out and a Braswell strike out.
In need of a quick inning, Evans strikes out the final two Missouri batters on 3-0 counts. LSU’s offense was in no help of Evans, who went three up and three down to go to the ninth inning.
Following two strikeouts, Evans caught Trey Lawrence’s ground ball and went to first base to give LSU the 7-6 victory. The crowd erupts.
“I was planning on going back to the back out there either way, unless [Johnson] told me not to,” Evans said.
LSU can sweep Missouri when they play for a third time on Sunday afternoon.
