Wednesday night was a case of all or nothing for LSU after getting beaten down by Oregon State. If this team wanted to have a puncher’s chance of making it to Friday, they needed to come out of the gate strong.
The Tigers did just that with an explosive second inning along with a strong performance from Jared Poche to give the Tigers a 7-4 victory over Florida State.
After a leadoff double from Greg Deichmann, Josh Smith got LSU on the board in the second with an RBI single to right field. Beau Jordan followed that up with a sac bunt to score Zach Watson.
Jake Slaughter busted things wide open later in the inning with a three run shot that just got into the crowd to make it a 5-0 lead for the Tigers.
The Seminoles got on the board in the bottom of the second with a solo shot from Drew Mendoza. Quincy Nieporte chipped away at the Tigers lead in the bottom of the sixth with a sac fly that scored Dylan Busby.
LSU put the final nail in the coffin with Watson hitting an RBI double to left center field to score Antoine Duplanits.
Jared Poche put himself alone at the top of career wins with his 39th win, passing up Scott Schultz. The senior threw eight innings, allowing four runs off seven hits, walked two and struck out four.
Zack Hess got his third save of the season after walking one and striking out the other three batters in the ninth.
LSU will now have a rematch with Oregon State on Friday with first pitch set for 2 pm. Alex Lange is set to take the mound for the Tigers.