In Game 1 of their doubleheader Saturday, LSU defeated Youngstown State 5-3. A walk-off two-run home run from Cade Doughty in the bottom of the ninth gave the Tigers the win, improving to 5-1 on the season.
The game began to look similar to AJ Labas’ first start of the season, where he allowed five runs and only went 3.1 innings. After a double, hit-by-pitch and walk, Youngstown State loaded the bases with just one out. He needed 23 pitches to do it, but Labas eventually worked out of the jam with a strikeout and ground out to get out of the inning with no runs scored.
“The first inning, Labas wasn’t in rhythm at all,” Paul Mainieri said.
The Tigers offense got out to a hot start in the bottom half of the first. Dylan Crews led off with a double to the left-center gap and Tre’ Morgan singled. Doughty brought Crews home from third with a double of his own, and Cade Beloso scored Morgan with a sacrifice to make it 2-0 LSU early.
Labas began to settle in in the second inning. After a rough first, Labas needed just eight pitches to get through the second. He recorded three strikeouts over his next two innings of work, featuring a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play from catcher Jake Wyeth in the third.
LSU’s offense went quiet over the next three innings after their two run, three hit first inning. They tallied just three hits over the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. Doughty grounded into his second double play of the game to end what started to look like a promising fifth inning after Jordan Thompson reached base after striking out and Morgan singled.
Labas’ day was done after the fifth inning. The starter allowed just three hits over five innings, and Trent Vietmeier came on to pitch the sixth. Things started to get rocky for LSU here, with Vietmeier recording just one out before walking the second batter he faced and was then pulled. The southpaw Jacob Hasty came on to finish the inning with two left-handers due up for Youngstown State, but got into trouble of his own. The runner he inherited from Vietmeier scored after a base hit and a wild pitch, and the Penguins had their first run of the game. Mainieri turned to Will Hellmers, the third pitcher of the inning, to get out of the jam. After walking the first batter he faced, Hellmers produced a groundout to end the inning.
Hellmers came back out for the seventh. After a leadoff bunt single and an errant throw on a pickoff attempt to move him up a base, Hellmers struck out the next two he faced and ended the inning unharmed.
“He did a tremendous job,” Mainieri said of Hellmer’s performance.
LSU’s bats stayed silent through the sixth inning, but finally came alive in the seventh. Wyeth led off the inning with a single, and Will Safford replaced Wyeth on first base. Safford eventually reached third, and was brought home on a Morgan two out single to make it a 3-1 LSU lead. A Doughty base hit and hit-by- pitch from Beloso loaded the bases for Zach Arnold, who popped up to the first baseman to end the inning.
Hellmers returned to the mound and recorded two outs in the top of the eighth. With one runner on, Mainieri called on closer Devin Fontenot to complete the four-out save. Instead, Fontenot walked the first batter he faced, then two singles led to two Youngstown State runs to tie the game at three runs a piece.
“Out of a thousand times, I’ll take you a thousand times again,” Mainieri said he told Fontenot after he was pulled.
After a three up, three down bottom of the eighth, Alex Brady spelled Fontenot for the top of the ninth. Brady struck out two in the inning and got an assist from Alex Milazzo, who tracked a high flying pop up and dove into the netting behind home plate to make the catch.
“Milazzo really energized the crowd,” Mainieri said. “That stuff sparks the team.”
With two outs in the last inning with the game looking like it would go to extras, Doughty stepped to the plate.
Prior to Doughty, Crews reached base on a hit-by-pitch. After several pickoff attempts, a poor throw allowed him to get to third before Youngstown State could retrieve the ball that rolled all the way to the LSU bullpen.
On a 2-2 count, down to his last strike, Doughty got his bat around on a pitch and sent the ball to the left field bleachers. Crews touched home plate before the LSU dugout could empty onto the field, then a smiling, yelling, helmet-less Doughty met his teammates at the plate, and they quickly swarmed the hero of the afternoon.
“I was very confident that he was going to go up there and hit a ball hard. I just hoped it wouldn’t be right at somebody” Mainieri said. “When you hit a ball into the bleachers, you don’t need any luck.”
