A&M rallies late to end No. 1 LSU's 13-game win streak
LSU’s first relief pitching meltdown of the season, combined with an absence of clutch hitting, ended the No. 1 ranked Tigers 13-game win streak Sunday afternoon.
No. 11 Texas A&M avoided being swept a home in an SEC series opener with an 8-6 comeback victory after LSU won the first two games 9-0 on Friday and 12-7 on Saturday.
Tigers’ reliever Christian Little imploded in the A&M eighth when he walked in a run and gave up a two-run single to Aggies' center fielder Stanley Tucker and an RBI single to shortstop Hunter Haas in consecutive at-bats.
LSU (18-2 overall, 2-1 SEC) had nine hits – two each by center fielder Dylan Crews, third baseman Tommy White and designated hitter Tommy Jones – off four A&M pitchers.
But the Tigers left 12 runners on base with first baseman Tre’ Morgan, left fielder Josh Pearson and catcher Brady Neal combining to leave 10 runners stranded.
Freshman Paxton Kling and Morgan, LSU’s 1-hole and 2-hole hitters at top of the batting order who usually set the table for 3-hole and 4-hole hitters Crews and White, were a combined 0-for-9 at the plate with Kling striking out three times.
Also, LSU relievers Riley Cooper, Chase Shores and Little each gave up two hits and two earned runs and walked two batters apiece.
“I’m proud of the way our guys prepared and competed over the course of the weekend,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said after Sunday's loss. “We played great baseball for the majority of the weekend. We didn’t allow a ton of free bases from the mound, but we did today, and Texas A&M is a good enough team to cash in when that happens.
“I felt like we gave a good effort, but we obviously wanted to finish off the series with a win today.”
It didn’t appear A&M (14-6, 1-2 SEC) would be able to salvage a win with the way it started Sunday’s series finale.
LSU wore out A&M starting pitcher Chris Cortez in his 42-pitch first inning that was a shining example of the Tigers’ hitters plate discipline.
LSU took a 4-0 lead off just two hits but drew three walks as the Tigers’ entire batting order made a plate appearance.
Cortez’s third walk of the inning with the bases loaded scored Morgan, who had walked. Pearson followed with a two-run single and shortstop Jordan Thompson also had an RBI single.
A&M countered with a run in the bottom of the first. Aggies’ designated hitter Austin Bost deposited a two-out, 3-2 pitch by LSU starting pitcher Thatcher Hurd over the right-centerfield wall for a solo homer.
Cortez appeared to settle when he started the LSU second by using just seven pitches to retire Tigers’ Kling and Morgan.
But three batters later after a double by Crews, a White RBI single for a 5-1 LSU advantage and a walk by second baseman Gavin Dugas, Cortez’s 62-pitch outing in just 1.2 innings was over. He was replaced by Justln Lamkin, who induced a Pearson pop out to end the rally.
A&M began chipping away its four-run deficit in its half of the third when Aggies’ third baseman Kaeden Kent scored on Hurd’s wild pitch. Then in the A&M fifth, the Aggies cut LSU’s lead to 5-4 when Haas slammed a two-RBI double off LSU reliever Cooper.
A&M used three relievers in the LSU seventh to hold the Tigers to a run after LSU loaded the bases with no outs.
After Lamkin walked Pearson to lead off the inning, he was replaced by reliever Robert Hogan who walked Jones and hit Thompson with a pitch.
A&M went to lefty reliever Will Johnston, who gave up an RBI sacrifice fly to Neal for 6-4 LSU edge and eventually worked out of the jam by getting Kling to fly out to right field and Morgan to ground out to second base.
It appeared Johnson was trying to squeeze three innings of relief from Shores to get LSU into the ninth inning when Johnson could insert a closer.
But A&M had other plans.
Bost singled to open the Aggies’ eighth and Shores then hit A&M second baseman Ryan Targac with a pitch. It forced Johnson to bring in Little, usually LSU’s closer, earlier than expected.
The Vanderbilt transfer, who had been gold so far for the Tigers early in the season, managed to get a couple of strikeouts before failing to dance his way out of trouble.