LSU Baseball defeated UL-Lafayette 17-4 on Tuesday night in Alex Box Stadium. The Tigers improve to 23-3 on the season behind great play from Freshman Cade Arrambide and Junior Jared Jones.
UL-Lafayette would get on the board first with two singles leading to a fielding error which scored one run. It didn’t take the Tigers long to respond.
The Tigers bats were booming early as they scored nine runs in the first inning. The inning started with Curiel and Jones reaching base on walks. Then, second baseman Daniel Dickinson hit a ground-rule double to right field which scored Curiel and moved Jones to third.
In the next at-bat, Junior Ethan Frey hit a ground ball down the third base line for two bags. The hit scored Jones and Dickinson. Score is now 3-1 Tigers.
The Tigers would then record two outs, but the team rallied with two outs. Cade Arrambide hit a monster two- run homer off the scoreboard in left to score Frey.
Braswell III, Stanfield and Curiel would all get on base loading the bases for Jared Jones. Jones then hit a grand slam to put the Tigers up 9-1 in the first inning.
The home run put Jones seventh all-time in home runs for LSU.
With all those runs being scored, LSU showed how they can respond to adversity early in games.
“It’s something we talk about as a team, you know, how do you respond to failure,” Jones said. “It’s a big thing not alone in baseball, but in life you know, how are you going to respond to failure and something that Coach Johnson does a great job of teaching us.”
UL-Lafayette would respond with one run in the second from with Sam Ardoin hitting a 1 RBI double.
In the fourth inning for ULL, Hepworth would reach base on a fielders choice and Connor Cuff would get on base after being hit by pitch. A couple wild pitches later and Hepworth would cross the plate. Next up Brooks Wright singled to center scoring Cuff.
Not only was the LSU offense good but the LSU defense would also make great plays. Shortstop Steven Milam had a couple great catches and throws to get runners out at first and left-fielder Derek Curiel made a diving catch to prevent a run from scoring.
