Sometimes being too aggressive hurts your chances at winning. Monday night was a prime example of that as the LSU Tigers got aggressive late, but got nothing for it in a 4-3 loss to the Florida Gators.
“We’re not going to hang our heads tonight” Paul Mainieri said after the loss, “I thought our kids competed as hard as they could and they left it all out there on the field. And we were just a hair short.”
Florida got on the board first after Austin Langworthy hit a sac fly to Kramer Robertson to score Dalton Guthrie in the top of the fourth.
Later in the inning, Jonathan India hit a ground-rule double to send two across, making it 3-0.
The Tigers kept it competitive though in the bottom of the sixth with a solo shot from Antoine Duplantis. Beau Jordan got LSU within one run later in the inning with an RBI single.
However, the Gators got a little insurance in the seventh with an RBI single from Mike Rivera. That insurance run wound up being the deciding factor after Josh Smith got a little too aggressive in the eighth with an RBI single before being tagged out trying to stretch it out into a double.
Brady Singer got the win for the Gators with a career high 12 strikeouts. Singer improved to 9-5 on the season allowing three runs off eight hits in seven innings of work.
Russell Reynolds dropped to 1-2 on the year allowing three runs off two hits, walked three, and struck out two in three and a third innings of work.
LSU will look to force game three on Tuesday with first pitch set for 7 pm.
“It’s comforting to know that we still have Jared Poché going tomorrow fully rested” Mainieri said, “If we’re fortunate enough to win tomorrow night, we’ve got Alex Lange waiting. We don’t think the series is over by a long stretch.
-Clint Domingue