LSU avoided being swept at home by an SEC West school for the first time since 2014 after a 7-6 victory over Texas A&M Sunday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
Tied 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning, LSU loaded the bases with two outs and Dylan Crews’ RBI single scored Giovanni DiGiacomo to give the Tigers a 7-6 advantage.
“It was a great win,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “I like the fact that we are 3-0 now in one-run games. I know that feels a little misleading because the last two nights felt like one-run games. Today, we had to have broken some sort of record in terms of (Texas A&M) baserunners we stranded on base. Ma’Khail battled and maybe wasn’t great, but left a lot of guys on base, Sammy Dutton did that, Eric Reyzelman left the bases loaded twice and Riley Cooper did a great job finishing up, pitching on his third day in a row.
“I think the story was the bullpen and we were finally able to put together our character of at bats, two and three in a row. That’s going to be really important going forward because we are going to hit some homers; we have seen that the last couple of days. I just thought the consistency and quality of at bats was much better today. I think it’s a good recipe. I think all these (SEC) games are going to be the same. Texas A&M is a really good team and they played well this weekend and deserved to win a couple of games. I’m going to walk away a little disappointed to be honest with you. I thought we left one on the table; it’s hard to say you should have won both of them. I’m proud of my team.”
Taking advantage of LSU fielding mistakes all weekend long, the Aggies (13-6, 3-0) immediately jumped on Tigers starter Ma’Khail Hilliard for a pair of runs in the first inning on four consecutive hits coupled with a Jordan Thompson throwing error. A solo home run from Logan Britt extended the Texas A&M lead to 3-0.
The Tigers cut into the deficit, making it a 3-2 affair with a pair of runs in the fourth, but Texas A&M immediately responded with three more runs in the fifth, highlighted by back-to-back home solo home runs to make it 6-2.
LSU fought its way back into the game with two runs in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Cade Doughty and a run-scoring fielder’s choice by Crews. Pushing across two more runs in the sixth the Tigers tied it up via RBI singles by Brayden Jobert and Tre’ Morgan.
Bouncing back after a rough first two games, Morgan finished as the leading hitter for the Tigers, going 3 for 5.
The Tigers (15-5, 1-2) return to action Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. when they welcome Louisiana Tech to Baton Rouge before traveling to Gaineville to take on Florida in a three-game series beginning on Friday.
