A beautiful mix of sunshine and crisp air filled Alex Box Stadium Saturday afternoon, and LSU baseball treated their fans even more with their second victory of the season in the first game of their doubleheader with the Indiana Hoosiers, albeit without the occasional drama.
Starter Landon Marceaux flirted with danger a few times in his first start of the season, but he was continuously able to find big pitches in key moments to climb his way out of jams. He finished with 4.1 IP, six H, three ER, and two K.
“I didn’t really have my best stuff all game, but I pitched with what I had, competed with what I had, and I kept us in the game, and that’s really all that mattered,” Marceaux explained.
In the second inning, an error by third baseman Zack Mathis put Marceaux in a hard spot, but when two more grounders zipped his way, he did not miss out on the opportunities to help his pitcher get out of the inning.
Marceaux gave way to Trent Vietmeier in the fifth after giving up a two run blast from Indiana third baseman Cole Barr, and Vietmeier was able to stop the bleeding there. Vietmeier ended his day with 1.2 IP, no hits or runs allowed and two strikeouts, a strong outing for the veteran junior.
A long-awaited face by the Tiger faithful hopped back on the mound today as well: Nick Storz. After missing the majority of the last two seasons with surgeries on a torn lat muscle in his throwing shoulder and the aftermath of scar tissue buildup, he was able to pitch for the first time in 2020. He finished with 1.0 IP, one hit, no runs and one walk.
“I’m so happy for Nick [Storz],” Marceaux said of his teammate. “I see him in there with Cory (Couture) and the training staff working every single day, and I’m just so happy for him.”
Devin Fontenot took the mound in the eighth inning, and gave up 1 run, but with the help of his defense and a big strikeout, was able to escape the danger to keep the Tiger lead intact. He then closed the game out in the ninth and earned the save.
The Tigers started their day offensively early, with an RBI single from first baseman Cade Beloso in the first inning. Runs also scored on an error by Indiana shortstop Jeremy Houston off the bat of catcher Alex Milazzo and a sacrifice fly by shortstop Hal Hughes in the second.
The offense continued their diverse attack in the fourth with two more runs plated by Milazzo and Hughes, after Saul Garza and Drew Bianco set the table with two singles.
Milazzo finished his impressive day at the plate with a fiery double in the gap to give LSU two more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth.
“Shows you what I know, I thought today we’d go out there and hit home runs, and last night there wouldn’t be any home runs, and we hit two last night and today we didn’t hit any,” Coach Paul Mainieri said with a smile about the variety of his Tiger bats’ run production. “We did some good baserunning and today we had some clutch hitting.”
“At the end of the day, we ended up scoring more than them, so that’s a good day,” Mainieri concluded.
The Tigers will finish their doubleheader tonight against Indiana, and will then take on the Southern Tigers on Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium at 5:00 PM.
