LSU’s second game of the 2021 season not only ended with the Tigers in the loss column, falling to Air Force 6-5 after a 9th inning collapse on the mound, but it also raised more uncertainty that will face Paul Maineri and his squad in the near future.
Unlike opening day where, other than a first-inning walk with the bases loaded, an LSU run wasn’t scored until the 5th inning. LSU’s offense got off and running early in the second game of the weekend. Drew Bianco got the scoring started in the 2nd inning with an RBI fielder’s choice on a ground ball to the left side that scored Giovanni DiGiacomo from third, who led the inning off with a triple.
Tre’ Morgan tacked on another run in the bottom half of the 3rd inning with a double off the base of the left field wall, scoring Cade Doughty from first base.
LSU starter Landon Marceaux cruised through five innings of work, allowing two runs with four strikeouts on just 63 pitches. The only two runs to score with Marceaux on the mound came in the 4th inning and were unearned. Freshman third baseman Will Hellmers, who was recruited as a pitcher, was charged with three errors including two in the 4th inning, bringing his season total to four in less than two games. Hellmers was replaced with fellow freshman Jordan Thompson for what would have been his third plate appearance, with Thompson also taking over at third base.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do at third base moving forward,” Maineri said. “Whether he’s back on the mound or whatever we do with him, it’s not going to hurt him. He’s too tough mentally.”
Ma’Khail Hilliard was the first pitcher out of LSU’s bullpen, relieving Marceaux for the 6th inning and allowing one run. Also in the 6th, DiGiacomo fell to the ground holding the back of his left leg as he laid on the outfield grass after running to catch a fly ball. The centerfielder was helped off the field, and Mainieri was forced to shuffle his defense around. Bianco, the shortstop, was moved to centerfield and Zach Arnold came off the bench to fill in for Bianco.
“It looked to me like he pulled his hamstring, but I don’t know the severity of it,” Maineri said, uncertain of the particulars of the injury.
With the Tigers trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th, Arnold again came through with a big late-inning hit. Although not a homerun as he hit in the season opener, a line drive over the head of the shortstop drove in Morgan and Cade Beloso, who both reached base from walks earlier in the inning. Beloso said he and the team were “fired up” after Arnold gave LSU the lead back late.
“We put ourselves in a good position,” Beloso said.
The top half of the 9th inning wasn’t kind to LSU. After scoreless innings from Blake Money and Trent Vietmeier in the 7th and 8th innings, respectively, Maineri called on freshman Ty Floyd for his first career appearance to complete the save with a one run lead. Floyd would walk two of his first three batters he faced, and an infield single from the next batter would load the bases and end Floyd’s day.
“This is how the young pitchers have to cut their teeth. If you just pitch them when the game’s not on the line, they’re not really growing,” Mainieri said as to why the freshman Floyd was his first choice out of the bullpen for the final inning. “He threw a couple of close pitches that were called balls that changed the counts for him and next thing you know he’s in a jam.”
Maineri then went to the veteran Aaron George to get out of the bases loaded, one out scenario he inherited. George would walk the tying and go-ahead runs to the plate, and a sacrifice fly to score another then made it a 6-4 Air Force lead heading into the bottom of the 9th.
“He had a difficult time finding the strike zone,” Maineri said of George.
Opting to go with two pitchers whose primary roles aren’t closing tight games out, Maineri said he didn’t want his traditional closer Devin Fontenot pitching on consecutive days this early in the season.
“Typically, I wouldn’t bring him in with a five-run lead,” he said as to why Fontenot was used to close out the season opener on Saturday. Fontenot began warming up for the 9th inning before Arnold hit the two-run homerun to extend the LSU lead to five runs.
“He was already warmed up and hot,” he said. “If this was an SEC series, he would have been in the game.”
In the bottom half of the 9th, Dylan Crews continued his hot start to the season with a solo homerun to cut the LSU deficit to one run with one out in the inning. Doughty and Morgan failed to reach base following Crews, and the Air Force dugout erupted in cheer as Morgan went down swinging for the final out.
Sitting at 1-1 and with uncertainty at third base and centerfield and inconsistencies from the bats and the bullpen, LSU has questions left unanswered around the diamond after the first weekend of the season.
“There’s a lot of areas we need to improve in,” Maineri said. “We’re going to address them and get better.”
