Josh Smith homer, Zack Hess' arm fuels LSU to 2-1 win over Aggies
Josh Smith knew it as soon as the ball left the barrel of the bat. The junior shortstop crushed a no doubt home run in the bottom of the eighth to secure what would be a 2-1 win over No. 14 Texas A&M in game one of the series.
Smith and the LSU offense had made solid contact all night but were hitting those right back at the Aggie defenders. Smith, who was looking for a fastball on the inside part of the strike zone, got exactly that and stared it down, perhaps a little to long for the umpire’s liking.
“I kind of let my emotions take over a little bit, hit it good and watched it go,” Smith said. “I’m not the type of guy to be the villain but in this situation, a crowd like this, the emotions got to me.”
“Regardless of whether we came back to win the game or not, I just thought that was a tremendous ball game,” coach Paul Mainieri said. “The pitchers were outstanding and of course Josh had the big swing. I thought we hit a lot of balls really hard but unfortunately they were either right at someone or they made terrific plays. I thought our kids competed really hard against them but we just didn’t have anything to show for it until we caught a break.”
Second baseman Brandt Broussard in particular, a player not known for his power, slapped two separate fastballs to the warning track, but one was in dead center and the other right at the right fielder.
They say third time’s a charm because for the third straight at bat, Broussard popped one up for a routine flyball, but the ball was misread by right fielder Jonathan Ducoff allowing Broussard to scamper around the bases and come home. Ducoff made two errors on the play as the throw he made was a cutoff throw to first base instead of trying to go home with the throw.
“Right when I was rounding first I saw it drop but then just put my head down and looked at Nolan [Cain] for the signal,” Broussard said. “I was trying to put more emphasis on hitting the ball on the ground but still ended up popping it up.”
“Props to Brandt for putting it in play and I guess some Alex Box magic took over,” Smith said.
It was a battle of Team USA pitchers Friday night with LSU ace Zack Hess going head-to-head with Texas A&M ace and former teammate John Doxakis.
The two traded zeros in the opening two innings before the bottom of the A&M lineup was able to get something going with a leadoff double and an RBI single from Zach DeLoach that put the first run on the board.
The run broke a streak of 20 consecutive innings of scoreless pitching from the staff as a whole but Hess’ command continued to be stellar, until the fifth inning.
Hess walked two batters in the fifth inning with two outs on the board, that loaded the bases and brought Team USA teammate Braden Shewmake up to the plate. Shewmake would groundout to Smith up the middle to end the threat.
LSU was able to work a little two out magic in the first with infield singles from Zach Watson and Chris Reid that left runners on the corners. The inning would amount to no runs, with a CJ Willis strikeout, but it did force Doxakis to throw 24 first inning pitches.
Hess was pulled in the seventh inning for reliever Trent Vietmeier, allowing one earned run on five hits with five strikeouts. On the other side, Doxakis was able to last into the seventh inning but was replaced after the error filled, inside-the-park homerun from Broussard.
The five strikeouts Hess had were all off his patented slider, which he says has looked the best it has in weeks.
“I thought our defense played really well behind me and got us out of some jams,” Hess said. “I feel like that’s the best my slider has looked in a while and it finally showed tonight and I was able to play in the zone a little bit better.”
Vietmeier, who’s turned into one of the more reliable arms out of the bullpen, retired all four batters he faced before Devin Fontenot came in for the final five outs of a tie ball game.
LSU is back for a double-header with the Aggies on Saturday with Cole Henry taking the mound at 2 p.m. and Eric Walker on the mound at 7 p.m.