For 25 innings this weekend, seemingly nothing went right for the LSU offense. For the first time since 2011, LSU coach Paul Mainieri’s club faced being swept at Alex Box Stadium entering the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday.
In doubleheader losses to Alabama Saturday, the No. 6 Tigers’ airborne balls got caught up in a gusting wind, which reached speeds of as fast as 22 miles per hour. When LSU (14-5, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) did get on base, they failed to produce runs when the opportunities presented themselves, going 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
With LSU hitting into 26 combined flyouts in the first two games, the philosophy was simple for Game 3 – hit the ball on the ground and force the Alabama infielders to make plays on a hard, dry dirt .
Ironically, the game-winning, two-run single came on a lazy fly ball in the bottom of the eighth, which Crimson Tide right fielder Chandler Taylor lost in the sun.
Backed by senior left-hander John Valek III two-run, eight-strikeout quality start, the Tigers broke through for six runs on five hits in the bottom of the eighth inning, pulling out a 7-5 win to salvage the SEC opening series.
“I have this theory,” Mainieri joked. “It’s really hard to win college baseball games. I’ve been doing this for 34 years. You think just because it says the name across the front of your jersey that it’s supposed to come easy, but it’s not. That’s not the way it works.
“In all honesty, I think this whole weekend was Alabama playing great than us playing poorly.”
Notching just five hits up to that point against a combination of Crimson Tide starting pitcher Nick Eicholtz and reliever Kyle Cameron, LSU cut the deficit to one and took the lead on two-run singles by freshman pinch hitter Brody Wofford and junior shortstop Kramer Robertson.
LSU extended its lead on a single by sophomore left fielder Beau Jordan, which plated two runs based on an error.
Wofford, who provided a clutch RBI in the 10th inning of LSU’s season-opening win against Cincinnati was making his 14th plate appearance for starting third baseman Chris Reid.
“I was a little nervous, but you try to put that behind you when you get in the box,” Wofford said. “You just try to key in, focus in, on everything that’s going on and try to make it happen.”
Alabama manufactured an early run against Valek in the top of the first, led off by left fielder Hunter Webb’s infield single and shortstop Chandler Avant’s sacrifice bunt. After Valek picked up his first strikeout of the game, Crimson Tide designated hitter Cody Henry roped an RBI single into center field.
Valek followed the one-run first inning with a 1-2-3 inning in the second, fanning his third batter of the game in the process, but Alabama replicated its first-inning offensive formula in the third.
Third baseman Daniel Cucjen led off the frame with a single, advance to second on another sacrifice bunt and moved to third on a wild pitch. Avant then ripped an RBI single through the left side, giving the Crimson Tide a 2-0 lead.
Meanwhile, LSU recorded just three hits off Eicholtz in his four-inning stint but had run-scoring chances in the first and third inning. But, like the doubleheader Saturday, the Tigers stranded runners on first and second in the first and stranded runners on the corners in the third.
LSU left five on base through the first four innings with no runs to show for it.
“It started off a lot the same,” Robertson said. “A lot of balls hit hard right at people. We weren’t really executing well, getting guys to third base with less than two outs, like we always want to. Nobody ever had their heads down. We always came in the dugout just trying to battle and keeping winning your at-bats. Good things will happen if we keep hitting balls hard.”
Eichholtz, who threw 32 of his 50 pitches for strikes, was pulled for Cameron to start the bottom of the fifth, and Cameron limited a potential game-tying threat with two outs. Aided by the leadoff error, Tiger junior second baseman Cole Freeman reached third base via two fielder’s choices.
Then, freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis’ slow roller was ruled an infield single, extending his hitting streak to 19 games, and plated Freeman. Duplantis then went from first to third base on sophomore left fielder Beau Jordan’s second hit of the day, but junior catcher Jordan Romero grounded out to end the frame.
After stranding a runner at second base in the fifth with his third inning-ending strikeout, Valek stranded runners on second and third in the sixth with pop out in foul territory.
Valek’s escape of the two-on, two-out jam in a full count ended his day, finishing with just his second walk in his LSU career.
“I just left it all out there,” Valek said. “I kind of had a sense that was going to be my last batter. I kind of left it all out there for that one. That was big. I was a little fired up to get out of that and make sure it was still a one-run game.”
Once again, LSU looked to do two-out damage in the sixth, putting runners on first and second off of an error and a single, but Robertson grounded out – the 11th ground out up to that point.
Junior right-handed reliever Hunter Newman replaced Valek for the seventh and gave up a two-run blast by Taylor, who had struck out in his previous three at-bats. Newman then walked the next batter he saw, bring Mainieri out of dugout to making a pitching change. Freshman right-hander Caleb Gilbert walked another Tide hitter before producing an inning-ending strikeout.
With LSU seizing control in the eighth, Gilbert returned for the ninth with a pair of strikeouts under his belt, but he allowed an RBI double to Cobie Vance and faced Georgie Salem with the tying run at second. But Gilbert punched out Salem to end the game and earn him his third win.
“Yesterday, just wasn’t our day,” Robertson said. “I never felt like we really played that bad. People outside of this program criticize you a lot, and, hey, they’re right to if you lose games. But it’s never as bad as it seems. I really felt like for the most part we played good defense, and we hit the balls hard. We just didn’t have the timely hits. Finally, we got the break that we needed. Hopefully, it will just be snowball effect and just carry that over into the next games.”