Tigers handle Missouri,12-5, in conference opener

By Hunt Palmer

THE STORY: Kade Anderson’s trend towards a true Southeastern Conference ace took a step forward Friday evening.

The sophomore southpaw set the tone for the game, weekend and conference season with six and a third dominating innings against Missouri. His offense chipped in with some big swings, and LSU cruised to a, 12-5, win to open conference play.

Missouri’s two early runs came on an opposite field homer off the bat of Jackson Lovich in the second. It was a fastball that was probably a tick higher than Anderson wanted, but it was certainly on the outer edge of home plate. Lovich made a good swing.

Outside of that, Anderson was brilliant.

He retired 10 of the next 11 he faced and ended up striking out 11 Tigers.

He commanded the fastball and mixed in both breaking balls effectively to keep Missouri’s offense out of sorts as the homestanding Tiger offense went to work.

Luis Hernandez answered Lovich’s home run with a two-run blast of his own in the bottom of the second.

LSU added five more in the fourth. Derek Curiel cleared the bases with a three-run triple into the right field corner. He came in to score on Daniel Dickinson’s RBI groundout. Then Jake Brown pinch hit for Ethan Frey and smoked an RBI single into right to score Jared Jones who was hit by a pitch.

Two innings later, Brown’s two run double off the wall in left field padded the lead to 9-2.

Anderson’s day ended in the seventh after a walk and a single. He threw 95 pitches, a season high.

Conner Benge inherited the trouble and added to it with a walk, but he induced a fly ball and got a strikeout to limit the damage to a single run to preserve the lead at 9-3 at the seventh inning stretch.

Benge has established himself as the dirty inning specialist. When runners are on base, Jay Johnson feels good about Benge’s ability to handle the moment and get strikeouts. However, Benge’s outing wasn’t all positive. He yielded back-to-back homers in the top of the eighth to cut the LSU lead to 9-5.

D.J. Primeaux and Connor Benge combined to strike out the side following Benge.

LSU put the game away for good in the bottom of the eighth with three runs capped by a two-run homer off Milam’s bat.

Speaking of Milam, he made three really impressive plays in the field and has only made one error in 18 games.

LSU has won 13 in a row.

THE SCORECARD: Anderson’s final line: 6.1IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 11K, 95 pitches.

Steven Milam: 1-for-5, HR, 2 RBI

Jake Brown: 2-for-2, 2B, sac fly, 4 RBI

Derek Curiel: 2-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI

Luis Hernandez: 1-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, HR

Missouri was 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. LSU was 4-for-8 (.500)

LSU scored all three times with runners on third base and less than two out

LSU did not commit an error.

THE QUOTES: Head coach Jay Johnson on Kade Anderson’s outing…

“I love the homer just kind of brushed off of him. He got to the next thing and executed in a way that you need the guy who is going to start the weekend in league to do. Really proud of him. I just think it’s really tough to deal with when you can command the ball the way that he can, the way he can locate and change speed.”

Johnson on Derek Curiel’s at bats…

“I can’t even remember the last time he wasn’t on base in the first inning before today. I was like, ‘huh?’ Within that at bat, I think it was a nine or 10 pitch at bat. And that had great positive effect on the rest of the game. Helped us pop the big inning later in the game, the fourth inning. So, I love that. I think he got himself out the next time, and then in spite of that, the guy hasn’t been out two times in a row in a month. He slows the game down. Critical at bat in the game against Ian Lohse, gets a ball up, gets on plane with it, moves it, and it’s a triple, and this place is going nuts.”

Kade Anderson on his outing…

“Not a lot of pitchers think like this, but the two-run home run might have helped me. It kind of changed my mindset to, instead of being on cruise control, just getting after it one batter at a time. If I get taken out in the fourth, just give it all I’ve got that inning. I just kind of changed my mindset to, ‘alright I’m going to finish this inning’ instead of alright, ‘I’m going to get through seven.'”

WHAT’S NEXT: LSU and Missouri will play game two at 6:00 pm Saturday, weather permitting. The forecast in Baton Rouge is not great Saturday afternoon.

Anthony Eyanson (3-0, 3.00ERA) will get the ball for LSU. Missouri will counter with left hander Wil Libbert (5.40ERA).

LSU’s bullpen remains healthy despite using Benge (16 pitches) , Primeaux (13 pitches) and Cowan (17 pitches) on Friday. Mavrick Rizy, Conner Ware and Casan Evans are unused. All three relievers LSU used on Friday will be available for a second time this weekend.