11,847 fans gathered at Alex Box Sunday for a sweltering rubber match between the No. 4 LSU Tigers and No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers. The weather was not the only thing hot, however. The Tigers’ bats were smoking too.
After a series of quiet offensive outings as of late, there was no better time to regain their rhythm than in this series. Standout freshman Derek Curiel led the charge with a home run in the first inning, and it was all LSU from there.
“The bounce back is what’s needed in baseball,” Curiel said. “I think we did a great job of that. Baseball is a game of failure. You’re gonna fail, you’re gonna succeed and I think our guys know what it means to win and how to bounce back from losses.”
The only two runs the Vols would score came in the first inning as freshman pitcher Casan Evans was finding his footing in his first career start. He quickly regained control, limiting one of the best offenses in the country to only two hits through the rest of the five innings he pitched.
“Yeah it was just ‘I gotta keep the ball down in the zone,’” Evans said when asked about his mindset after the first inning. “That was it. There was a couple I made mistakes on and they got some hard hit balls which led to the two runs in the first inning. Going back out there the next inning I was like I’m gonna throw everything down because that’s their weak spot.”
Along with Curiel, Michael Braswell and Jake Brown were also big parts of LSU’s offensive success, both of them with home runs on the night. Luis Hernandez also had a double to close the game. Head Coach Jay Johnson says it’s the growth of his lineup that makes performances like these possible.
“I thought we played in what I would call our best character,” Coach Johnson said. “Lose-free, confident, aggressive, with a good plan. That’s part of it. I know it’s all wins and losses and results and this and that, but the fact that guys are improving gives us the opportunity to do that.”
The run-rule victory was a much needed momentum boost for the Tigers because they still have more SEC competition on the way. Next weekend they will take a trip to College Station, then come back home to face Arkansas and finally head to Columbia for a meetup with former head coach Paul Mainieri, which will be a true test before the postseason.
