The LSU Tigers baseball team defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 11-6 on Thursday night at Alex Box Stadium. The win marks LSU’s second straight and ends a three-game conference losing streak. They erased a 5-1 deficit with 10 straight runs in the win.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
#9 LSU (33-6, 11-5 SEC) started their ace Kade Anderson on the bump. He worked quickly to get the first two outs, but Kade Snell launched a solo home run to give Alabama the early 1-0 lead.
#15 Alabama (30-9, 8-8 SEC) countered with right-hander Tyler Fay. Fay gave up a leadoff single to Derek Curiel but worked around it to post a zero. Alabama led 1-0 after the first.
LSU would get one back in the bottom half of the third. After a Chris Stanfield double, Curiel came through with yet another hit, this one scoring the Tigers’ first run of the night. That made it 2-1 after three full innings.
The score would remain 2-1 until the top half of the sixth. There, Bama added another home run from Snell, this time a two-run shot. That was immediately followed by another homer, this one from Richie Bonomolo Jr. That made it 5-1 Tide and Anderson’s day came to an end.
The Tigers would respond in the bottom half of the same inning. Ashton Larson got a pinch-hit opportunity and made the most of it, crushing a three-run shot to right to cut the lead back to one and make it 5-4.
In the top of the seventh, Alabama’s Justin Lebron was called out on a very questionable strike three call. That prevented them from extending the lead, and they also had their first-base coach ejected for arguing.
In the bottom half, LSU got the first two runners on and over to second and third. Then, Steven Milam launched a three-run blast to give LSU their first lead of the day at 7-5. The lead would be extended with the help of an error, and LSU went to the eighth leading 8-5.
LSU got two more insurance runs via Ethan Frey, who mashed a two-run opposite field homer in the bottom of the eighth. That was followed by a safety squeeze to add one more.
With an 11-5 lead, LSU had trouble finding the strike zone in the ninth. They walked in a run to make it 11-6, but finished the job after that.
BIG NUMBER: 10
Trailing 5-1 in the sixth, LSU scored 10 unanswered runs on their way to a big Friday night victory. The offense exploded and the bullpen held things down to help clinch the victory.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Steven Milam
Milam hit the massive go-ahead three-run blast in the bottom of the seventh inning. On the day, he was just 1-5. However, the one was a homer with three driven in.
UP NEXT: Game two between LSU and Alabama is tomorrow, April 18th at 6:00 PM. You can listen to the game on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.