No. 9 LSU baseball team scored five runs in a titanic first inning en route to a 15-2 victory against Missouri on Sunday, clinching LSU’s first Southeastern Conference series sweep of the season.
“I’m extremely proud of the way our guys competed all weekend,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri in a news release. “We beat two of the best pitchers in our league in the first two games, and today we took a very aggressive approach and got the early lead. Our dugout was full of energy throughout the weekend, and it translated onto the field.”
LSU’s (25-11,11-4 SEC) explosive start was led by freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis, who set the tone of the first frame with a leadoff single.
Center fielder Jake Fraley and junior catcher Jordan Romero furthered LSU’s strong start with singles of their own to bring home Duplantis.
In the cleanup spot, junior first baseman Greg Deichmann reached first base on a fielding error, which scored Fraley.
Junior shortstop Kramer Robertson followed with an RBI double, and one at-bat later, sophomore designated hitter Bryce Jordan grounded out to drive in another run.
Freshman third baseman Chris Reid rounded out the frame with an RBI single, putting LSU ahead, 5-0.
“[Freshman pitcher Michael Plassmayer] did a great job just hanging in there,” Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said during an in-game interview with ESPNU.
Missouri (20-18, 4-11 SEC) pushed a run across in the bottom of the second, cutting the deficit to 5-1, but LSU senior pitcher John Valek III kept the opposition mostly quiet during his six-inning start.
LSU was able to extend its lead to six in the top of fifth, when Bryce Jordan earned his second, and third, RBI of the day on a single, giving LSU a 7-1 lead.
Missouri sophomore Brett Bond countered with a lead off home run to cut the lead back to five, but Valek limited Missouri to just one run in the frame.
“He pitches like he does,” Mainieri said. “He pitched to contact and we made the plays. We had a little luck that they hit it right at people. He was very important to us.”
Romero, Deichmann and Bryce Jordan started the top of the seventh with three solo home runs for LSU, but that wasn’t all for the inning.
Duplantis plated a run on an RBI single, followed by Fraley’s RBI double. LSU’s second five-run inning pushed the gap to 10 runs.
LSU provided the final blow in the top of the ninth, when Romero brought in two runs on a single and designated hitter Trent Forshag drove in an RBI with a sacrifice fly.
LSU set a season high with 20 hits, as all nine LSU starters tallied a hit.
“We had a good approach at the plate all weekend,” Mainieri said. “We swung the bat well.”