No. 4 LSU kept swinging home run bats Thursday night at Georgia in the opener of the last of 10 SEC regular season series.
And nobody is more thankful about that than Tigers’ reliever Thatcher Hurd.
After Hurd served up two solo homers in the bottom of ninth inning to send the game to extra innings, LSU’s four-run rally in the top of the 12th keyed by the last two of a season-high six homers gave the Tigers an 8-5 victory.
The Georgia homers by shortstop Sebastian Murillo and center field Ben Anderson that tied the game 5-5 were the only runs and two of the three hits Hurd allowed in five innings
Hurd drawing a line in the sand was much needed in light of LSU losing its SEC home series to Mississippi State last weekend. Nine LSU relievers including Hurd gave up 25 hits and 21 runs in 10.1 innings during Saturday and Sunday losses to MSU.
Following left fielder Josh Pearson’s two-run homer and shortstop Jordan Thompson’s second homer of the game for the eventual margin of victory, Hurd nailed down the win by striking out two of the final three Georgia batters in the bottom of the 12th.
“Thatcher was great, he competed, he was sound and produced a great tempo,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “He really pitched well tonight.”
It appeared LSU (41-12, 17-9 SEC West) wouldn’t been dragged into extra innings by the Bulldogs (28-25, 10-18 SEC East), grabbing the lead at 4-2 in the top of the eighth when designated hitter Hayden Travinski and Thompson hit solo homers.
“Hayden gave us a great lead-off at-bat (hitting a double and advancing to third base on a wild pitch in the 12th, and that was a great swing by Josh,” Johnson said. “We had good at-bats throughout the night, and it started paying off with the results late in the game.
Even when Thompson dropped a two-out pop up that allowed Georgia to score a run in the eighth, the Tigers fought back in the top of the ninth.
After two quick LSU outs, enter fielder Dylan Crews launched a solo homer high over the left field wall to re-establish a two-run lead. But with Hurd needing just three outs for the win in the bottom of the Georgia ninth, he couldn't get it done.
The Bulldogs immediately got one run back when Murillo led off with a solo homer. After Hurd retired the next two batters, Anderson’s solo homer tied the game 5-5.
Through the first seven innings in a 2-2, both LSU and Georgia were desperate for offense.
LSU went scoreless for five innings after right fielder Brayden Jobert’s two-run homer in the second.
Georgia pulled into a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fifth when it did something no team has done against LSU’s lockdown starter Paul Skenes. With one out, he gave up three straight hits including catcher Will David’s solo homer and second baseman Mason LaPlante’s game-tying RBI single.
Skenes got out of the jam by striking out the last two Bulldogs’ batters, then escaped the sixth leaving two Georgia runners on bases. He finished the night strong, recording the last two of his game-total 12 strikeouts in a three-up three-down Georgia seventh.
"We fought," Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said. "We battled against obviously a really good baseball team. We went toe-to-toe, but we just came up short. We have to turn the page. If we compete like that, we are going to have another chance to win tomorrow. We have to finish good teams like that off."
Friday’s game 2 starts at 5 p.m. CT and will be televised on SEC Network+. LSU junior righthander Ty Floyd (6-0, 4.53 ERA, 59.2 IP) gets the pitching start vs. Georgia junior lefty Charlie Goldstein (3-1, 4.50 ERA, 44 IP).
