LSU Baseball
By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY
Every aspect of LSU’s offense clicked early on Monday night.
The Tigers scored in their first six at bats and held off a solid Kent State club in a 10-7 victory at Alex Box Stadium.
Jake Brown was the early catalyst. He laced a solo shot in the first and hit a sizzling line drive home run off the batter’s eye in the third. Those sandwiched Mason Brauns towering, opposite field three-run shot in the second. It was the freshman’s first career homer.
All said, LSU bashed four long balls as Zach Yorke’s leadoff homer made it 10-3 in the sixth.
It wasn’t all big flies, though. Tanner Reaves bunted for a hit. Seth Dardar drew three walks. Of the nine Tiger starters, seven scored a run. The two that didn’t–Cade Arrambide and Trent Caraway– drove one in.
Even the baserunning was good. Yorke got a great read on a low pitch and swiped second to the raucous approval of the home crowd. He would score on Caraway’s RBI single. Curiel darted home on a wild pitch that just escaped the reach of the Kent State catcher.
After a weekend beating up on Southeastern Louisiana pitching, the Golden Flashes posted a pair of crooked numbers on the Tiger staff.
Slugger Sawyer Solitaria unloaded a prodigious 439-foot home run high off the left field scoreboard to draw Kent State within 4-3 in the third. In the seventh, Tiger southpaw DJ Primeaux issued a pair of free passes. They came around to score on a three-run double by Brody Williams. Later, Williams came in on a two-out single by Micah Rienstra-Kirac off Grant Fontenot who was hit hard. That four-run frame cut the deficit from 10-3 to 10-7.
Gavin Guidry was not hit hard. He struck out the side in the eighth and slammed the door with two more strikeouts in the ninth for his first save of the season. The other bullpen positive was Deven Sheerin who struck out both men he faced for the second consecutive day. Those two are destined for some high leverage outings moving forward.
THE SCORECARD
LSU was 13-for-37 (.351)
Kent State was 6-for-31 (.194)
LSU had six extra base hits.
Jake Brown: 3-for-5, 2 HR
Zach Yorke: 3-for-5, HR, 2B
Tanner Reaves: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI, R, BB
Gavin Guidry: 2.1IP, 0 H, 0 R, 5 K
LSU played errorless baseball.
WHAT’S NEXT
LSU will take Tuesday off and return to action Wednesday night when Nicholls makes the trip up from Thibodaux for a 1:00 first pitch. The Colonels were swept at Tennessee over the weekend. They host South Alabama on Tuesday.
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