A crisp, cool evening in Baton Rouge wasn’t enough to ice the bats of the LSU baseball team.
LSU (9-0) jumped on Brown University (1-1) with an eight-run second inning on its way to a 13-7 victory at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU racked up 16 hits, including home runs by senior designated hitter Matt Gaudet, sophomore second baseman Tyler Hanover and sophomore outfielder Mikie Mahtook.
“We laid off a bunch of bad pitches, saw balls up in the zone and balls that we can hit well on the fat part of the bat,” Gaudet said. “We were zone in tonight, and hopefully we can keep coming out and hitting like that.”
The run support was more than enough for junior starting pitcher Austin Ross, who allowed seven hits and five earned runs while striking out six batters in 5 1/3 innings of work.
“Ross was really outstanding for four or so innings there, and then they started getting to him,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I thought he threw well early, and then it seemed he couldn’t finish off some innings.”
Walk-on freshman Chris Cotton provided 2 2/3 innings of solid relief pitching for the Tigers. Cotton struck out three batters, scattered six hits and allowed one earned run.
Mainieri said Cotton did a “phenomenal job” in relief.
“I thought the story of the game at the end, after our offense was the story early, was that kid Chris Cotton,” said Mainieri. “He just threw strikes. In the end they got a few dinky hits off of him, but I think he did a phenomenal job.”
Senior first baseman Blake Dean moved into fourth place on LSU’s all-time career RBI list with a fifth-inning RBI single, No. 203 of his career.
Dean scored on junior center fielder Leon Landry’s RBI single, then Landry and junior catcher Micah Gibbs capped a four-run fifth inning after scoring on a throwing error committed by Brown left fielder Daniel Rosoff.
Brown starting pitcher Will Weidig struggled in his first start of the season, allowing nine hits, eight earned runs and four walks in 3 1/3 innings pitched.
Landry began the scoring in the second inning when he reached home on a balk by Brown starting pitcher Will Weidig.
Gaudet followed with a solo home run, his fifth of the season, to make the score 2-0.Sophomore shortstop Austin Nola continued the scoring effort with an RBI single, and scored on catcher Gibbs’ two-out, two-RBI single. That set the stage for Hanover, who hit a two-run home run to extend LSU’s lead to 7-0.
Leading the way for Brown was third baseman Ryan Zrenda, who hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning. Brown shortstop Graham Tyler also contributed with a two-RBI single in the fifth inning.
 
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