LSU Baseball
By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY
STARKVILLE, Miss. — LSU built three leads on Sunday. The Tigers gave them all away.
Mississippi State tallied eight unanswered runs late to take game three, 13-8, and sweep the series in Starkville. LSU’s pitching and defense just wasn’t good enough on a day and over a weekend where the offense did its part.
In State’s four-run sixth that flipped the score, Dax Dathe walked the leadoff man and was replaced by Deven Sheerin with a 2-0 count on the second hitter, Bryce Chance, who singled. Then Sheerin got the ground ball he needed right back to him. If he would have fielded it cleanly, he could have started a double play. If he lets it go, it’s probably a double play. Instead, he deflected it toward first base, picked it up and fired it well wide of first base into foul territory to allow two runs to score and Gehrig Frei to motor around to second.
It was a back breaker, and things only got worse.
A wild pitch moved Frei to third. Ace Reese’s double tied the game, and he came around to score on a fielder’s choice ground ball after another single. The four-spot turned a 8-5 LSU advantage into a 9-8 State ballgame.
Zion Theophilus did strand the bases loaded to give his offense a chance. For the first time all day, LSU didn’t respond. State kept piling on.
Cade Arrambide’s three-run shot in the first got LSU going with the third first inning three-spot of the weekend for the Tiger offense. Reese evened things up with a three-run blast of his own in the second. LSU countered in the top of the third when Steven Milam blistered a line drive home run inside the right field foul pole to make it 5-3 Tigers.
State knotted things back up with two runs on a hit in the fifth. But LSU’s freshmen answered.
Facing State’s best bullpen arm, Dane Burns, who had an ERA under 1.00, Mason Braun bashed an RBI triple off the wall in right center, and Omar Serna smoked a breaking ball out of the ballpark in left to put LSU up 8-5. The bullpen couldn’t hold it.
State would add two more in the seventh on two perfectly placed hits.
Noah Sullivan’s fly ball down the left field line hit to inward jutting wall about 310 feet from home plate. Blake Bevis’s flare to left floated just over Milam’s outstretched glove. Both brought home a run.
Aidan Teel homered off Mavrick Rizy in the eighth to make it 12-8.
Losing Casan Evans on Friday forced LSU’s bullpen to cover 11 innings in the series opener. Then William Schmidt only made it four innings on Saturday. Asking a bullpen to throw 23 innings on a weekend is a losing proposition, and LSU lost.
The bright spots were Braun and Serna. They were great. Not much else was.
LSU has lost nine consecutive SEC game which may be a program record. Research hasn’t shown a streak that long.
THE SCORECARD
Mississippi State Overall: 12-for-36 (.333)
State With Runners On: 11-for-31 (.355)
State With RISP: 6-for-19 (.316)
LSU Overall: 8-for-35 (.229)
Tiger pitching walked seven and hit three for 10 free bases.
State’s leadoff hitter reached in seven of eight innings. Only one of the seven was a hit.
Mason Braun: 4-for-5, 3B, 2 R, RBI
Omar Serna: 2-for-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
LSU made three more errors. State was clean defensively.
WHAT’S NEXT
LSU returns to action Tuesday at Alex Box Stadium as Southeastern Louisiana makes the trip over from Hammond. The Lions entered Sunday 27-17 on the year.
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