After dropping the last two games to lose the series against Oklahoma last weekend, LSU baseball rebounded in its midweek clash against Louisiana Tech to land back in the win column and inspire some offensive confidence.
LSU defeated Louisiana Tech 15-5 in eight innings on Tuesday, by way of run rule. The Tigers were backed by excellent results from their two-out hitting approach, plating 11 of their 15 runs with no outs left to give in the inning. The other four runs came off the bat of Zach Yorke, who popped a pair of home runs in the game.
“Two-out hitting is going to win or lose games,” head coach Jay Johnson said after the game. “We were on the right side of it tonight.”
The contest got off to a hairy start for the Tigers. LSU starter Reagan Ricken couldn’t get out of the first, only retiring two of the five batters he would face in his start. Those woes allowed two runs to score in the Louisiana Tech first inning.
Louisiana Tech right fielder Cade Patterson would score to get the game underway when a single from third baseman Colby Lunsford was thrown errantly by LSU right fielder Jake Brown. Brown’s throw ended up in the third base camera well, scoring Patterson and advancing Lunsford to third. He would score when the next batter grounded out.
Ethan Plog came in and settled down the Louisiana Tech offense, starting a great run of form from the LSU bullpen, which rolled out a staggering eight arms after Ricken. The Bulldogs would be held hitless after the first until the fifth, and had to wait until the sixth to tally in the run column again.
“Two and a third [innings], seven outs, that’s a big deal right there,” Johnson said about Plog slowing the Louisiana Tech offense.
With the opposing bats silenced and displaying a new-look batting order, the Tigers’ offense got to work.
Third baseman John Pearson got LSU back to level in the first with two outs. He roped a single up the middle that scored outfielders Chris Stanfield and Brown to log LSU into both the hit and run columns.
The theme of productive two-out hitting continued an inning later. Brown pushed a single through the infield going the opposite way to bring in second baseman Trent Caraway and shortstop Steven Milam, giving the Tigers an edge that they’d hold on to for the rest of the night.
“Two-out, two-RBI singles, we get two of those,” Johnson said. “I think, really helped.”
After Brown’s knock, the two-out party would continue in the inning. Catcher Omar Serna Jr. put a ball in play that Louisiana Tech second baseman Casey McCoy couldn’t pick, scoring Brown. Serna would come in to score later in the inning, getting pushed home when a pinch-hitting Mason Braun walked with the bases full of Tigers.
Center fielder Derek Curiel, who reached on a walk, burst home on a wild pitch during the next at-bat to punctuate a five-run inning for LSU.
Following a Yorke long ball to lead off the fifth inning, LSU again found itself red-hot with two outs. Curiel cashed in this time, just missing an opposite-field home run and doubling off the top of the fence. The double drove in Brown, and the Tigers’ lead swelled to 9-2.
Yorke had been the object of some ridicule for poor play entering tonight’s game, and his big output in Tuesday’s game brought him some much-needed relief.
“Little bit of a sigh of relief,” Yorke said.
In the eighth inning, Yorke mashed his second homer of the night, a three-run shot that moved LSU to 12 runs in the game.
“I’m happy for him. I’m proud of him,” Johnson said about Yorke’s showing. “For persevering and sticking through it with failure. He hasn’t stopped working.”
Then, once more, two-out hitting took center stage.
First, Serna drove in two on a flare that found the grass in right field to make the LSU lead nine runs. Then, Derek Curiel smacked one off the wall to dead center to push Serna, the run-rule tally, home.
“I think they just were in control of themselves,” Johnson said about his hitters’ approach tonight. “They’re good hitters, they just need to commit to it.”
The Tigers will try to be committed to their approach in a similar fashion this weekend. LSU will host Kentucky in Baton Rouge for a three-game set that starts on Friday night.
