Senior infielders Austin Nola and Tyler Hanover ran off the Alex Box Stadium grass for one last time in the regular season Tuesday night to a raucous ovation from 6,050 Tiger fans. Not caught up in the moment, Nola knew the Tigers (40-12) have more business to take care of at the Box. “It wasn’t as emotional, because I know we have more games here,” Nola said. “Hopefully we have more games here.” Completing the first perfect midweek game season in modern LSU history, the Tigers rallied from an early defect and held off a furious ninth inning rally to win their 14th and final midweek game of the season, 9-6, over Nicholls St. Nola paced the Tigers with four hits in the leadoff spot and junior first baseman Mason Katz blew the game open with a mammoth three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to put the Tigers on top for good. “I got that one pretty good,” Katz said. “He left a fastball a little bit up and I put a good swing on it.” Sophomore pitcher Kurt McCune gave the Tigers five solid innings, scattering only six hits and two runs, while picking up his third win of the season. McCune, seeing his first action since a May 5 loss at Ole Miss, impressed head coach Paul Mainieri, who said before the game he was only planning on using McCune for three innings. “He had two fantastic innings,” Maineiri said. “I think he got some big outs when we needed them, he pitched in the clutch.” Nicholls opened the scoring in the second inning with Beau Faulk’s RBI single and again in the third with an RBI groundout by Blake Bergeron to put the Colonels up 2-0. LSU answered in the bottom half of the third with five runs of its own, highlighted by consecutive hits from Nola, sophomore designated hitter Jackson Slaid, Katz and junior outfielder Raph Rhymes to give the Tigers a 5-2 cushion. Katz’s home run in the sixth and Hanover’s RBI single in the eighth ended the Tiger scoring barrage, and set up a ninth inning that Mainieri could only call “interesting.” Sophomore reliever Nick Rumbelow and junior reliever Nick Goody combined to surrender four runs on four hits, ending the threat when Goody struck out Austin Flores, who represented the tying run, to end the game. “We just wanted to get Rumbelow and Goody a few pitches out there to keep them sharp,” Mainieri said. “Both of them struggled, they put the bat on the ball.” The Tigers will travel to Columbia, S.C. for perhaps the biggest Southeastern Conference series of the season, with a regular season title in the balance when the series begins on Thursday night. The Tigers enter the series a game back of Kentucky in the overall SEC standings, while the Gamecocks sit only a half game back. “We’re looking forward to the competition,” Mainieri said. “I got to think the eyes of the nation of college baseball will be on us.” ____ Contact Chandler Rome at [email protected]
Baseball: Tigers rally to edge out Nicholls State
May 14, 2012