(Photo Credit: @LSUbaseball on X)
By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY
A series dictated by the big pitch was finally flipped by the big swing.
It came from star Aggie sophomore Caden Sorrell. His eighth inning three-run blast put the Aggies in front, 6-4, and clinched the decisive game three in a hotly contested series in College Station.
As I look at it, Jay Johnson pushed a lot of the right buttons.
Twice a left-hander came on to retire Jace Laviolette successfully–once in the fourth and once in the six.
With Chase Shores throwing the ball well, Johnson decided to go to another left hander against Laviolette, calling on Conner Ware. The Tiger southpaw induced a squibbed ground ball to the left side that wasn’t hit well enough for Michael Braswell to make a charging play on it. That scored Gavin Kash to make it 4-3 Tigers.
Johnson went to his ace reliever at that point.
Zac Cowan came on an got a lazy fly ball to right field from Wyatt Henseler, but it wasn’t hit well enough for Josh Pearson to make a play on it coming in. That brought Sorrell, A&M’s best hitter on the season, to the plate. Cowan fell behind 2-1 in the count and threw pretty well-located fastball on the outer half of the plate and at the knees.
Sorrell is likely a top 10 pick next year because he can do what he did–sink into his knees and drive the baseball north of 100 mph and over the wall in left.
The bullpen baton was passed to the anchor leg, Cowan just didn’t quite get it over the finish line.
For a third straight day, LSU’s offense was below par.
Luis Hernandez doubled home a run and scored on a Steven Milam single in the fourth. With two outs, third base coach Josh Jordan waved the runner home in both instances. Texas A&M probably cuts either run down with a fundamental relay play. They failed both times to put the Tigers ahead 2-0.
Hernandez delivered LSU’s only other blow with a two-run homer over the wall in left to make it 4-2 in the sixth.
That just not enough on a Sunday, and it really wasn’t enough all weekend. On Sunday, LSU was able to generate multiple baserunners in just three of nine innings and had only three extra base hits.
Casan Evans was only able to work through 3.1 innings because he just didn’t have his command. Only 50 of his 93 pitches were strikes, and he walked three and hit two more.
A&M loaded the bases in the first without a hit. Evans danced out of it. Ben Royo walked and scored in the fourth, and that was the end of Evans’s day.
The bridge bullpen guys really did a nice job.
DJ Primeaux, Jaden Noot, Cooper Williams, Chase Shores and Ware worked 4.1 innings and struck out seven with a lone walk. Shores and Ware were charged with runs that came home on the Sorrell homer after they had exited.
Positives are hard to sift through when a series clincher gets ripped away, but those guys did step up in a tough environment.
LSU leaves College Station 38-11, 15-9. Six games are left on the SEC slate, and a suddenly sizzling Arkansas team is up next. Flipping Sunday’s result would have made the mathematical probability of a top eight seed very, very high. LSU has serious work to do against the Hogs, now.
THE SCORECARD
The top four slots in the LSU order (Jones, Pearson, Frey/Brown, Curiel) was 2-for-15 with three strikeouts.
Neither team put a leadoff man on base all day.
LSU only had four at bats with runners in scoring position, went 2-for-4. Texas A&M was 4-for-12 (.333)
All four of LSU’s runs came with two out. Five of Texas A&M’s six runs came with two out.
WHAT’S NEXT
LSU’s final midweek matchup is Tuesday at Grambling comes to Baton Rouge. The Tigers from the SWAC are 16-8 in SWAC play and could be a threat to win that conference tournament in two weeks.
