The last time Oregon State lost was back when they fell to the USC Trojans in April. If any team could stop this proverbial buzzsaw, they would need to have a nearly perfect game.
The LSU Tigers had that kind of game on Friday afternoon behind solid performances from their pitching staff to force a fifth game against the Beavers.
“I felt confident about Alex’s ability to go out there today and pitch a gem.” Paul Mainieri said after the game about junior pitcher’s performance. “He usually does that after a less than stellar performance, which I think he would admit last week was. Alex never loses confidence, he just works, gets prepared, and turns the page very quickly. This is why I think he’ll be an outstanding professional pitcher. He’s got a short memory when things don’t go well. He goes out there the next game and just pitches his heart out. He was obviously the key to the ballgame.”
Josh Smith got things started in the top of the second with an RBI single up the middle to score Greg Deichmann. Beau Jordan followed that up with a sac bunt to get Zach Watson across. Mainieri was certainly thankful for a crooked number inning with the caliber pitcher that the Tigers were up against
“We were lucky — not lucky — but we executed really well, got the two-run inning there against (Josh) Thompson.” Mainieri said, “I knew any run we could get was going to be valuable. It was probably going to be a low-scoring game.”
The lone run from the Beavers came in the bottom of the third when Trevor Larnach drew a bases-loaded walk. Smith finished things off in the seventh with a solo shot out to right field to put the game away by the score of 3-1.
Alex Lange got his 10th win of the season allowing one run off two hits, walked four and struck out eight batters in seven and a third innings of work.
Zach Hess came into the game in the top of the eighth with one out and faced the minimum to get his fourth save of the season. The freshman also struck out four of the five he faced in one and two-thirds of an inning of work.
LSU will take on Oregon State one more time on Saturday with first pitch set for 2 pm.
-Clint Domingue