Cool Cole chills the Aggies as LSU wins another SEC series
Cole Henry doesn’t look, act or think like a 19-year-old pitcher called upon to rescue another SEC series for ninth-ranked LSU.
“I imagine myself going nine innings every game,” said the true freshman from Florence, Ala., who limited Texas A&M to two runs in eight innings in the Tigers’ series-clinching 9-3 victory Saturday night in Alex Box Stadium. “I try to go as hard as I can for as long as I can.”
After being shut down by A&M starter Asa Lacy’s 11-strikeout performance in the Aggies’ 6-4 win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, Henry’s masterful pitching backed by 12 LSU hits off six A&M pitchers gave the Tigers (23-10 overall, 8-4 SEC) their third league series win in the first four weekends.
Henry scattered six singles, threw 64-of-96 pitches for strikes and blanked the No. 9 Aggies after their two-run first inning.
“We came this close to sweeping the No. 1 team in the league pitching-wise,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “We almost came back and won that first game.
“They (A&M) got those first two runs (of the second game), and wasn’t he (Henry) phenomenal after that? I think we’re watching greatness develop in front our very eyes. Cole Henry is going to be a superstar in this league. He already might be a superstar. He’s got big league written all over him and we’re going to enjoy him while we have him.”
The Tigers scored nine unanswered runs in the series-deciding game. Nobody had hotter bat than center fielder Zach Watson, who was 4-for-5 with a homer, two doubles and a single.
Watson, who struck out twice and grounded into a double play in game one, just missed hitting for the cycle in the nightcap. His eighth inning hit, in which he advanced to third base, was ruled a double because A&M right fielder Logan Foster was charged with a fielding error.
“I was going for a triple out of the box,” Watson said. “I looked up when I rounded second and I saw him (Foster) kick the ball.”
While that was going on in LSU’s three-run rally, Henry was lobbying Mainieri to let him finish the ninth for a complete game.
“I talked Coach into it,” Henry said. “I went down to the bullpen, got loose a bit and came back in. But we kept hitting, they kept changing pitchers and Coach said it was too long for me to sit.”
The fact A&M (25-8-1, 7-4-1) used a half-dozen pitchers trying to douse LSU’s hot batters was the sign of surrender the Tigers had sought all weekend.
LSU managed a split in the first two games of the series, despite being dominated by A&M starting pitchers John Doxakis in Friday's series opener and by Lacy in Saturday's first game of a doubleheader that was scheduled because of inclement weather expected Sunday.
That duo, which entered this weekend ranked 5th and 7th respectively in the SEC in earned run average, allowed a combined one run on five hits while striking out 15 and walking just four batters.
The only run they gave up was a freak play Friday when A&M right fielder Jonathan Ducoff overran an pop-up by LSU's Brandt Broussard. The ball glanced off Ducoff’s glove and rolled all the way to the right field corner as Broussard raced home to tie the game at 1-1.
An inning later, LSU shortstop Josh Smith launched a solo homer that proved to be the game-winner.
“A little Alex Box magic,” Mainieri said of the comeback.
The Tigers had no such voodoo in their bag in Saturday afternoon's loss. They were dazzled by the lefty Asa, who allowed one hit in six innings as A&M eventually built a 6-0 lead through 8½ innings off three LSU pitchers.
Once Asa was pulled, LSU was finally able to break through with a three-run eighth keyed by RBU singles by Watson, third baseman Chris Reid and first baseman Cade Beloso.
In the LSU ninth, it appeared the Tigers might rally for the victory. After left fielder Giovanni DiGiacomo led off with a triple, he scored on an RBI single by catcher Brock Mathis.
When Mathis advanced to third base on Smith’s no-out double, LSU looked like it was in the catbird’s seat.
But A&M sophomore reliever Kaqsey Kalich slammed the doors shut, striking out the Tigers’ 2 and 3-hole hitters Watson and right fielder Antoine Duplantis and getting cleanup hitter Reid to fly out on deep drive to center field.
Besides Asa’s effective pitching, LSU doomed itself by committing a season-high five errors.
“I thought if we could get him (Asa) out of the game with enough game to play and have a shot at their bullpen, we could come from behind," Mainieri said. "We would've, but we had some porous defense. That’s the only time all year we’ve played bad defense.”
And Mainieri, according to Beloso, led the Tigers know his displeasure between games.
“Coach was really upset about it and we knew it couldn’t happen again,” Beloso said. “We knew that isn’t LSU baseball. It was unacceptable.”
To win the series, Mainieri rested his hopes on Henry, LSU’s game two winner at Mississippi State a week ago when the Tigers won the last two games to take the series.
Henry’s first pitch against A&M plunked leadoff hitter second baseman Bryce Blaum and left fielder Cam Blake followed with a single.
Two batters later, catcher Mikey Hoehner’s one-out single scored Blaum and Blake for a 2-0 Aggies’ lead. But then Henry induced left fielder Allonte Wingate to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Then, unlike the first two games of the series, LSU bats were able to send A&M’s starting pitcher to an early shower.
Left-hander Chandler Jozwiak got yanked with no outs in the third when the Tigers produced three hits in their first four batters, including Watson’s game-tying two-RBI double.
LSU took the lead at 3-2 on Beloso’s RBI single off A&M reliever Chrjs Weber, but Reid was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
When Watson kept his big game at the plate going with a one-out solo homer to left field to up the Tigers’ margin to 4-2, there was the assumption LSU may need more runs to secure the win.
The Tigers got plenty more, but the way Henry pitched they didn’t need them.
“That’s a big leaguer, he looks the part,” Beloso said of Henry. “He has electric stuff.”