Doubleheaders are known to put a baseball team’s pitching depth to the test. A typical pitching staff is rarely up for 18 innings in one day, so having efficient and dominant innings from the starter goes a long way in not only the outcome of the game, but preserving arms for the future.
LSU achieved that in its doubleheader Saturday. The team walked off Youngstown State in Game One in an instant classic, winning 5-3, and blew past Nicholls in the nightcap by a score of 12-0. AJ Labas pitched a scoreless five innings against Youngstown State, allowing just three hits and striking out six. Later in the evening, Landon Marceaux went a scoreless six innings, allowed just two hits and struck out a career-high 10 batters. He tossed multiple three up, three down innings, once with three strikeouts. It was LSU’s first shutout since February 2019.
“You get starting pitching like that, you’re going to have a chance to win some games,” Head Coach Paul Mainieri said. “When Landon’s in a rhythm and he’s got good command, his fastball has good movement, his velocity was good, his slider and changeup were outstanding. He’s an outstanding pitcher.”
“I was on my fastball, commanding it very well and also commanded my offspeed pitches very well,” Marceaux said. “I just put it all together, and it was one of those nights.”
As for the Tigers’ bats, it was a quiet Game One. After a two-run first inning, LSU was held scoreless until the seventh. There, Tre’ Morgan had an RBI single, but that would again be it for the time being.
After trusted closer Devin Fontenot allowed two runs before he could record an out in the eighth, the game was tied heading into the ninth. Alex Brady pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, giving the offense the chance for a walk-off.
Dylan Crews got the inning started, reaching base on a hit by pitch, and after several pickoff attempts, one finally went wild. The ball rolled to the LSU bullpen, and Crews jumped to his feet and sprinted for third base.
Meanwhile, Cade Doughty was at the plate. His at-bat had reached a 2-2 count, and the Tigers were one strike away from heading to extra innings. Doughty seemingly didn’t like the sound of even more baseball. He sent the next pitch 412 feet to left field, scoring Crews and himself and putting LSU in the win column.
The heads of Youngstown State’s players hung low, and Doughty’s was held high as he met his teammates at home plate for a celebration. It was the first of many home runs the Tigers would hit Saturday.
“That was an awesome moment,” Mainieri said.
LSU would leave the field, head for the locker room, quickly change uniforms from their purple to yellow and head back out to warm up for their second game of the day. They swapped jerseys, but the energy carried over.
“You’re always worried about a letdown after an emotional game like that, but man, we came out like gangbusters,” Mainieri said.
Crews got started right away, homering to right field on the second pitch of the bottom of the first inning.
“People wonder why I lead him off, but that’s exactly why,” Mainieri said.
In the bottom of the second, Drew Bianco hit one of his own, sending a ball soaring deep into the Baton Rouge night and over the bleachers of left field. Before Bianco could get a breather in the dugout, Jordan Thompson sent a ball over the wall in left-center field to extend the LSU lead to 3-0.
After a quiet third inning, the bats got going yet again in the fourth. Alex Milazzo, who came into the day with just two hits on the season, doubled down the left field line to score two more. Morgan knocked in one on an RBI single, Cade Beloso walked with the bases loaded, Gavin Dugas scored another on a fielder’s choice and Brody Drost singled to bring in Will Safford. It was a six-run fourth inning, and it broke the game wide open. It was also the rare occasion that runs hadn’t come from the long ball.
Those big innings make everyone happy, except the pitcher.
“It’s a love/hate relationship with these long innings,” Marceaux said. “You’re scoring a bunch of runs but you’re sitting for a while. Those are the toughest situations to pitch in.”
The Tigers weren’t done with the extra base hits just yet. A Beloso double brought Morgan and Maurice Hampton Jr., the Crews substitution, home in the fifth inning. In the eighth, Bianco homered again to cap off the scoring for the night. It went exactly where his first did, over the left field bleachers.
It was LSU’s fourth home run of the game and its fifth of the day, giving the Tigers their most home runs through seven games in 10 years.
“I’m not complaining,” Mainieri said. “I love home runs as much as anybody.”