BATON ROUGE — Despite hitting three home runs, LSU dropped the second game of its final home series of the season with a 6-5 loss to visiting Alabama on Saturday evening.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
LSU jumped out to an early lead in the first inning with back-to-back home runs by Dylan Crews and Gavin Dugas.
Alabama answered within the next frame as Sam Praytor took the first pitch from AJ Labas and lifted it over the left field wall.
LSU responded in the bottom of the second.
Drew Bianco drew a full-count walk with one out and then stole second base. Alex Milazzo then drew a walk and two batters later, Crews drove in Bianco with a single to center field.
Alabama would answer by scoring at least one run in the next three innings.
The Crimson Tide scored two in the third with a pair of RBI singles, and two more in the fourth with a pair of RBI doubles.
Labas was pulled after the fourth having given up five runs on eight hits.
The pitching change didn’t keep Alabama off the scoreboard as Zane Denton hit a solo home run off of Javen Coleman in the fifth.
Alabama starter Dylan Smith was pulled after four innings in which he gave up three runs on six hits and walked three batters.
LSU had more difficulty with his relief — Connor Shamblin, as the junior righty gave up only one hit but did walk two in the next four innings.
LSU did get to Shamblin in the bottom of the ninth.
Tre’ Morgan hit a one-out single and then advanced to second on a wild pitch by Shamblin. After Crews struck out swinging for the second out, Dugas took the second pitch he saw and lifted it over the wall in left center field.
Shamblin was replaced by Chase Lee who was able to end the game by getting Cade Doughty to fly out to deep left field.
BIG NUMBER: 8
LSU didn’t have an issue getting runners on the base paths on Saturday but did struggle to bring them home. The Tigers left a total eight runners on base in the 6-3 loss.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Gavin Dugas
The Tigers junior left fielder went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, 3 RBI, 1 walk and a solo home run in the first and a two-run blast in the bottom of the ninth. Dugas leads LSU with 14 home runs on the season.
UP NEXT: LSU (31-19, 10-16 SEC) will host Alabama (29-18, 12-13) on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium in the rubber game of the weekend series. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.