LSU baseball lost its third game of the series versus Alabama 7-4 after a poor offensive outing. The loss prevented a sweep, but LSU still took the series with wins on Thursday and Friday.
The Tigers struggled to bring home its baserunners all night, stranding all five of their baserunners up until the sixth inning. They stranded four base runners in the first two innings alone.
Twice in this game Derek Curiel hit into a double play, killing offensive momentum.
Their first score came off the bat of Jared Jones, who launched his 13th home run of the season in the third. But after Jones’ solo homer, LSU went two innings before seeing another hit.
After several innings without hits and a couple others leaving them on base, the game was starting to slip away.
Head coach Jay Johnson then decided to pinch hit Jake Brown for Michael Braswell III. It paid off on the very first pitch which was launched over the fence to make the score 5-3.
Alabama, on the other hand, had no issues bringing home their runners with four of their 13 base runners scoring up to the sixth inning.
Just one hit in the following two innings set things up to depend on the bottom of the ninth.
Once again in need of a spark, Brown hit a triple to drive in Pearson from first. Two strikeouts and a foul out left Brown standing on third base to end the game. The games end was effectively representative of its entirety, runners left on base or in scoring position.
“I think Josh is the one who said it a few weeks back, that he kind of puts himself in another person’s shoes,” Brown said. “I took that from him and I’ve been working on that.”
Conner Ware got his first SEC start over Chase Shores. He threw 37 pitches through 2.0 innings, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out one batter. Despite allowing good contact, Ware consistently got ahead in counts and left with just one earned run. The decision for him to start came largely from the advantage of using a lefty against this specific Tide batting order.
“You look at that first inning. Fowler’s a left handed hitter, we’d had problems with Snell for two days, Hodo is one of their better guys,” Johnson said. “It gets us off to a clean start and he did a good job.”
Shores replaced him in the third inning and issued a walk to his first batter, then a three-run home run off the bat of Richie Bonomolo. Shores had six Alabama baserunners on during the 2.2 innings he worked but was able to strike out five batters.
The game started to turn when the LSU bullpen was able to strand a combined six baserunners in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. DJ Primeaux, Maverick Rizy, Cooper WIlliams, and William Schmidt stopped Alabama baserunners from crossing the plate.
Jaden Noot inherited two baserunners from Schmidt in the top of the ninth. Noot loaded the bases, surrendered a sacrifice fly that scored a run, then loaded the bases again with a walk. Jacob Mayers came in and walked in a run before getting out of the frame.
“Cooper Williams and DJ were awesome tonight,” Johnson said. “That was the highlight of the night for me.”
Ultimately, a bend but dont break relief effort was not paid off by the bats, often because of missed opportunities. The Tigers finish the home appearance with a series win, missing the opportunity for a sweep.
The Tigers next series is April 25 at 6:30 p.m., taking on Tennessee in Baton Rouge.
