LSU Baseball
By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY
It’s not often a closer creates momentum.
That was the case for LSU on Tuesday night as fireballer Deven Sheerin settled things down for 2.1 innings of shutout baseball to allow the Tiger offense to flip a Creighton lead into an 8-4 Tiger victory. Santiago Garcia’s best outing in purple and gold slammed the door.
LSU’s shoddy defense and lack of pitching command showed up early.
Creighton scored two in the second and two in the third thanks to a total of four walks, two hit batsmen, and a pair of wild pitches all in those two frames. The only reason it wasn’t worse was a favorable review for LSU that turned a two-run throwing error by Omar Serna into an out that didn’t allow any runs because Bluejay nine-hole hitter Nick Venteicher was ruled to be running inside the baseline on a safety squeeze bunt.
To LSU’s credit, Steven Milam made a diving stop to end the second, and Derek Curiel went deep to the warning track to make a diving catch to prevent scoring in the fourth.
Through four innings, Creighton led 4-2, and LSU’s offense was a bad as its early defense. The two Tiger runs came thanks to a Steven Milam RBI bloop single that was only possible because of the catcher’s inability to catch a foul pop up between home plate and first base. Milam made him pay two pitches later. LSU’s second run came on a Jake Brown ground ball into the shift with two out that the second baseman couldn’t field cleanly.
Both runs were gifts.
However, Sheerin held Creighton at four runs while striking out four without allowing a hit. He was emotional coming off the mound, spurring on his teammates.
In the fifth, LSU sandwiched a Zach Yorke single between hit by pitches to Milam and Eddie Yamin. Serna then launched a titanic grand slam some 455 feet into the trees beyond the bleachers in left center. That made it 6-4 and gave LSU life.
The Bluejays’ last real gasp came in the seventh, and it was legitimate.
Connor Capece was hit by a Santiago Garcia pitch to load the bases with one out. LSU challenged that he leaned into the pitch, and it was ruled that Capece “did not make a sincere effort to avoid the pitch”. He was called out on strikes for the second out, and Garcia punched the next hitter out with a blazing fastball to end the threat.
Garcia’s outing was fantastic. His fastball was well commanded at 93-to-94 mph, and his breaking ball is vicious. LSU needs some of the pitching depth to come around, and Tuesday was a huge step in the right direction for Garcia.
Brown belted his ninth homer of the year for two insurance runs in the eighth, and LSU got the job done.
The first four innings were more of the same stuff LSU has shown for two weeks. The last five innings were very good. The team will take any win after last week, and now the most consequential 30 games of the regular season are here.
THE SCORECARD
Deven Sheerin: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 40 pitches, 25 strikes
Santiago Garcia: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 44 pitches, 26 strikes
Sheerin and Garcia retired 16-of-19 hitters faced
Jake Brown: 2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB, SB
Zach Yorke: 2-for-4, R, HBP
Omar Serna: 1-for-3, Grand Slam, 4 RBI, BB
With Runners On: Creighton 2-for-15 (.133); LSU 6-for-22 (.273)
RISP: Creighton 2-for-12 (.167); LSU 2-for-13 (.154)
WHAT’S NEXT
It’s time for SEC baseball. The first three of 30 for LSU will be in Nashville the weekend. The Tigers and Vanderbilt will begin the series with a 6:00 central start at Charles Hawkins Field.
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