By Hunt Palmer
THE STORY: Following the first setback of the season, LSU took care of business on Saturday night.
The Tigers responded to a heartbreaking 5-4 loss in Game 1 of a doubleheader with a, 12-1, thrashing of Omaha in a rainy Alex Box Stadium.
Chase Shores set the tone with five shutout innings of work. The offense continued the momentum built in the four-run ninth inning earlier in the day by scoring in five of the eight innings. The defense remained steady.
It was a rock-solid finish to an uneven weekend that netted two wins out of three.
Luis Hernandez clubbed his third double of the weekend with one out in the second. He came around to score the first run. Josh Pearson’s RBI double in the following inning plated the second. LSU created real separation with a three-spot in the fourth. That rally included four singles and a sac fly.
Three more came home in the sixth, and four followed in the seventh as the Omaha pitching staff ran out of gas. LSU’s staff got stronger.
The four pitchers that followed Shores did not allow a hit in four innings of work. The depth of the pitching staff feels legitimate even if facing inferior competition. Yes, the Mavericks got to Connor Benge in the early game on Saturday, but that’s really been the only bad bullpen inning of the season thus far.
Shores really looks like a good matchup option in Game 3s. His high-90s fastball and sharp slider overwhelmed Omaha. He punched out six and got his pitch count up to 84 after 67 last week.
Zac Cowan’s outing cannot go unnoticed. He toiled two perfect innings with three strikeouts.
The Tigers held Omaha to just three hits.
THR SCORECARD: LSU’s bullpen threw four innings of one-run baseball with six strikeouts and two walks, both by Jacob Mayers.
Tanner Reaves reached twice and scored two runs in his first shot at the leadoff gig.
Derek Curiel hit second and had a pair of hits and scored three times. So, the top two in LSU’s order scored five times.
Jared Jones went 3-for-5 and drove in five runs.
LSU only struck out five times. Omaha struck out a dozen times.
Steven Milam was 3-for-3 with a double and a walk.
LSU was 6-for-16 (.375) with runners in scoring position.
Omaha was 0-for-12 with runners on base.
LSU was a perfect 4-for-4 in getting runners home from third with less than two out.
