By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY
The margin for error is gone.
Georgia destroyed LSU’s pitching staff for the second straight night to claim the series at Foley Field, 13-8.
Simply, LSU doesn’t have a good enough pitching staff to get the Bulldogs out. Marcos Paz had no command. Danny Lachenmayer gave up a towering homer and walked a high wire for 2.2 innings to eschew much further damage. He walked the bases loaded in the third and got out of it. A disastrous Bulldog baserunning display ended the fourth when there were runners at second and third and one out.
Santiago Garcia got hit. So did Ethan Plog. Zion Zeophilus walked three, and Mavrick Rizy gave up a homer.
It didn’t matter who Jay Johnson turned to. Georgia is just way better. This Bulldog team leads the SEC in most offensive categories. LSU ranks near the bottom in too many pitching statistics. This Tiger staff has now allowed SEC opponents to score 10-plus in nine of 26 games. That happened once last year.
Paz threw 25 strikes in 56 tries. He went 1-0 to 9-of-14 hitters. There was just no command. He gave up four hits in the second including a grand slam to Michael O’Shaugnessy. Lachenmayer’s third pitch was hit over the scoreboard for a two-run shot by Jordy Oriach.
Georgia scored eight in the second frame.
Cade Arrambide stayed hot with a three-run double in the top of the third, but 8-3 was as close as LSU would draw even with Chris Stanfield’s three-run homer in the eighth.
The Bulldogs had at least two baserunners in every inning. It was a mismatch.
LSU walked 13 hitters and hit two more. With the three wild pitches, LSU gave away 18 free bases and recorded 24 outs. That’s just awful.
Georgia has won the SEC outright with Saturday’s win. LSU now needs to win the final four league games to feel like the NCAA Tournament is in play.
THE SCORECARD
Georgia had 14 hits, seven for extra bases. They got the leadoff man on in 7-of-8 innings. The Bulldogs scored 13 and left 15 on.
LSU was 3-for-23 (.130) with runners on.
Seven of nine Tiger starters struck out.
Steven Milam’s 17-game hit streak is over.
The teams combined to walk 23, the most in an SEC game this season.
Derek Curiel: 2-for-4, 2B, BB, R
WHAT’S NEXT
LSU will essentially play for its postseason life on Sunday. Both teams called Sunday a TBA. Zac Cowan is LSU’s likely starter after an exceptional outing last week. Georgia will probably go to Kaden Aoki who has made two SEC starts thus far but has made 10 appearances.
Both Cowan and Aoki are valuable bullpen pieces that are Sunday starters when not used in the first two games.
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