By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY
LSU threw some late window dressing on that one.
A four-run outburst in the eighth nudged the margin from 3-1 to the final tally of 7-1 against visiting Grambling at Alex Box Stadium.
At this point, LSU isn’t in the business of dismissing victories. I am. This one was ugly for three hours. The last 20 minutes were a positive, and so was the pitching, but the offense underwhelmed coming off a really good Sunday in Nashville.
Against a Grambling pitching staff that entered with an ERA over 9.00, LSU didn’t produce an RBI hit until the eighth.
The first run came in the second on a tapper of a ground ball to first that chased Omar Serna home from third with one out.
The second came in the fourth with some big help from a wild pitch, a walk and a catcher’s interference in front of Eddie Yamin’s sacrifice fly to the base of the wall in left. Yamin deserves credit. That ball was hit well, but no one came through with a big hit.
Same drill in the fifth when Jake Brown led off with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.
These results would be completely acceptable on an SEC Friday against a first round draft pick. This was SWAC pitching. This Grambling group had been tattooed by just about everyone, and LSU entered the eighth with four hits.
The Tiger arms stood tall, though.
Grambling put at least two runners aboard in each of the first four innings but was only able to push a run across in the fourth on a two-out RBI single to tie the game. It was lights out after that.
LSU relievers faced two over the minimum over the final 5.1 innings. Cooper Williams, Mavrick Rizy, Ethan Plog, Gavin Guidry and Marcos Paz combined to work those 5.1 innings. They allowed two hits and a walk while striking out nine to seal the win and put it in the rearview.
All five of them really threw the ball great.
In the Tiger eighth, Serna blasted a towering leadoff homer to make it 4-1, and Chris Stanfield poked a bases-loaded single to center to plate two more. Cade Arrambide‘s hit by pitch with the bases loaded capped the scoring.
THE SCORECARD
LSU was 7-for-30 (.233)
LSU was 3-for-18 (.167) with runners on
LSU was 2-for-13 (.154) with RISP
Omar Serna: 2-for-5, HR, 2B, 3 R
Zach Yorke: 1-for-1, 3 BB
Tiger pitching only walked three and struck out 15.
WHAT’S NEXT
LSU and Oklahoma help kick of Week 2 of SEC play with a Thursday night start from Baton Rouge. The opener will begin at 7:00 on ESPNU. The expected pitching matchup will be Casan Evans versus former LSU hurler Cam Johnson. Neither team has posted a starter, though.
More Top Stories
