It was a sunny day in Alex Box Stadium as LSU baseball took on Dartmouth on Sunday, and the home-field advantage played well for the Tigers. The 3-0 contest was courtesy of a few sun balls.
The LSU offense was a bit stagnant throughout this weekend of baseball, but the cold bats were bailed out that afternoon. In the fourth inning, back-to-back fly balls lost by outfielders-in the sun allowed shortstop Steven Milam to hit a double and score.
The offense had several misses on fly balls that kept this game being a lopsided score. There were 14 balls hit in the air, and only four of them benefited the Tigers.
The third and fourth balls hit in the air that benefited them were courtesy of right fielder Jake Brown. He blasted his fifth home run of the season during the first inning and had another RBI in the eighth inning off a warning track line drive.
He’s had high expectations placed on him early this season, and head coach Jay Johnson said he could’ve played even better today.
“[Brown is] just so good,” Johnson said postgame. “He can overcome maybe not being at his best. I don’t think he’s at his best right now, and I’m just talking about a guy that’s probably an All-American if the season ended today.”
Those were the only hot swings of the game because LSU struck out nine times. This team had only struck out 16 times entering Sunday’s game.
The sun might have helped for one of the runs, but the 10 other fly balls hit didn’t help LSU’s case. However, Johnson said on Saturday after the game against Northeastern that many of these fly balls should turn into line drives as the season progresses.
“It’s never as good as it seems, and it’s never as bad as it seems,” Johnson said after the game versus Northeastern. “Maybe you’re not running balls out of the park and hitting liners, but the guys that I know will do better are some guys that can play better right now. That’s actually a really good thing to have.”
But the Tigers’ pitching has been downright dominant to help pick up the slack this weekend, and Sunday’s game was no exception.
William Schmidt started on the mound, and he went 7.1 innings, and struck out nine batters. That ties a season high for the Tigers’ Sunday starter. Schmidt was straight dealing on his 95 pitches. He didn’t walk a single batter but hit one. This left the bullpen with plenty of depth for later in the game.
“[Schmidt] absolutely suffocated the zone, and that’s hard to hit when guys land in that many pitches for strikes with that kind of stuff,” Johnson said postgame. “It’s strikes pressure, it’s pitch pressure, and what I mean by that is not only pitches, it’s execution.”
This game was the first this weekend in which LSU needed more than two pitchers to complete the contest, and the Tigers used four. One pitcher only threw two pitches, and the other only threw to one batter.
Sophomore Mavrick Rizy took the bump in relief, and he was just as electric as Schmidt. He threw 1.1 innings and had three strikeouts, but it was Jaden Noot who put the game away for the Tigers by slamming the door shut on Dartmouth with two outs in the ninth inning.
After sending nine pitchers to the bump during the Tigers’ midweek game versus McNeese, this weekend has been a dream for pitching coach Nate Yeskie. It sets LSU up great for the long week of baseball ahead.
LSU will face Northeastern again on Monday for a rematch after Saturday’s 3-1 ballgame. The first pitch will be at 6:30 p.m. at Alex Box Stadium.
