A couple of Louisiana baseball programs in LSU and McNeese are coming off weekend series losses against conference opponents. Both teams met in Baton Rouge on Tuesday night for a matchup at the Box and the Tigers pounced on the Cowboys early with five runs and ended up run-ruling Justin Hill’s squad 16-0 to improve to 22-12 while McNeese dropped to 16-15 on the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson began on the mound for LSU as he forced leadoff hitter Cooper Hext to hit a groundout on the first pitch and then struck out Simon Larranaga and Elliot Hebert to get out of the first inning. Anderson’s K against Larranaga came after going down 3-0 in the count.
Skipper Jay Johnson put Jared Jones in the leadoff and the sophomore took advantage of the opportunity as he hit a home run over the left field landing. Tommy White, Mac Bingham, and Brady Neal were all walked by Daelan Caraway, then with two outs Paxton Kling hit a single to third base but McNeese’s first baseman Hebert couldn’t coral the throw, and White scored on the play. After that, Steven Milam hit a bases-clearing triple past the right-field line to put LSU up by five before the end of the opening frame.
Anderson at the top of the second struck out Conner Westerburg and Parker Stroh then got Braden Duhon to hit a pop fly to Kling in center field for the third out.
Brian Shadrick replaced Caraway to begin the second and faced Jones who hit a double into left left on a 1-2 count. Ashton Larson walked and stole second base but then scored from there after Bingham bunted to the pitcher to put LSU up 7-0 after two innings.
Peyton Lejeune recorded McNeese’s first hit with an infield single to freshman shortstop Ryan Kucherak but got caught stealing after Chase Keeton hit a flyout and Easton Dowell fouled out.
Milam walked to open the bottom of the third and stole second before Jones hit his second bomb of the night, this time dead over center field. McNeese’s Ty Abraham was the pitcher who gave up but finished the frame with flyouts by Larson and Bingham.
LSU’s Sam Dutton came in for relief in the fourth and got out of the inning in nine pitches, including strikeouts against Hext and Hebert.
Justin Hill went to the Cowboys’ bullpen again in the fifth inning by bringing in Evan Maldonado and it didn’t go as planned for the junior right-handed pitcher. Jake Brown hit a two-run homer after White was walked and Josh Pearson pinch-ran. Zeb Ruddell and Kling were walked and Alex Milazzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases with Ruddell scoring after Ben Nippolt was also hit by a ball. Milazzo made it home on a wild pitch and then Jones hit his third home run to bring in three more runs and put LSU up 16-0 after five innings of play.
Freshman Cam Johnson made it to the mound at the top of the sixth and went two-thirds of an inning before Kade Woods retired Larranaga to send it to the middle of the sixth.
Aiden Moffett came in at the top of the seventh for LSU and secured the 16-0 for the Tigers with strikeouts against Cole Plowman and Ben David. The Bayou Bengals improved to 22-12 with the win while McNeese dropped to 16-15
BIG NUMBER: 4
There were four total home runs by the LSU Tigers baseball team on Tuesday night with three coming from sophomore Jared Jones, the other coming off the bat of freshman Jake Brown.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jared Jones
Jones made the most of his opportunity as the leadoff hitter as he began the game with his first of three home runs and had a double in the second inning. The sophomore finished the evening with six RBI as LSU defeated McNeese 12-0.
UP NEXT: LSU Baseball will travel to Knoxville for a weekend set against Tennessee. Game one’s first pitch for the Tigers is set for 6:30 and the action can be heard on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles. The Cowboys will spend the weekend at home, hosting Incarnate Word as their game one first pitch is set for 6:00.