LSU completes sweep of Bryant to remain undefeated in 4-3 win

The Tigers completed their first sweep of the season, but it took late heroics from the veterans on the team to pull it off as LSU beat Bryant 4-3.

In a tie game in the seventh inning and the heart of the lineup at the plate, Zach Watson and Antoine Duplantis performed a little two out magic to give the Tigers a 4-3 advantage. A single from Watson brought up Duplantis, who had gone 0-for-2 prior to the at bat. Watson stole second and Duplantis followed through with a double to right field that brought home Watson for the lead.

Mainieri credited Duplantis’ hit but said that Watson’s was the most important because he connected on a slider, which he had been struggling with the first few weeks.

“That was vintage Zach Watson,” Duplantis said. “He fought off a couple of tough pitches and ended up putting a good swing on the ball. He looked great the last two days and I hope he continues to build off that.”

“I thought that was the at bat of the game,” Mainieri said of Watson’s hit. “He was down in a two strike count but he kept battling and got the base hit and a clutch stolen base. I was never worried about him being around him for two years and seen the big hits he’s made for us. He has too much talent to be held down.”

LSU (7-0) loaded the bases in the first with singles from Josh Smith and Zach Watson followed by an intentional walk to Daniel Cabrera. A sacrifice fly from designated hitter Saul Garza brought one run home. The Tigers put two runs across in the first after a single from Gavin Dugas, who made his first career start at first base.

The opening single from Smith extended his hit streak to seven games to begin the season and for the sixth time, reached base safely in the first inning.

Unlike the first two games, Bryant was much crisper at making the necessary plays on defense, avoiding any costly errors that had plagued the team. Friday and Saturday, the Bulldogs committed seven errors but Sunday was a different story with only one error for the afternoon.

Freshman Jaden Hill was back on the mound after an eight strikeout performance in his debut against Air Force. Hill was equally impressive, even though his strikeout number went down, retiring 12 of the first 14 batters he faced.

A two out double in the fourth inning was the only blemish for Hill as the hit from catcher Sam Owens brought home a run that cut the LSU lead to 2-1. With Bryant pushing to add more runs in the fifth, Hill struck out back-to-back batters to the heavy applause of the Alex Box crowd.

Matthew Beck replaced Hill in the sixth inning as Hill’s pitch count got to 85 through five innings. Hill struck out three and allowed one run on two hits in his second start.

Beck, who has been struggling with command in every appearance this season, was throwing the ball over the plate, but getting driven to the outfield for singles and doubles. Three singles and two stolen bases later and LSU was in a tie ball game at 3-3.

One area the Tigers have got to improve in is not letting teams run around the bases for free. In seven games, LSU has allowed 14 stolen bases without one throwout from catcher Brock Mathis. Mainieri said it’s really not a catcher’s problem as much as it is pitcher’s taking too much time in their windups.

“I’ll never throw my pitchers under the bus,” Mathis said. “We’ll get better as a whole because it takes me too. Maybe being a little quicker myself but I have great confidence that they’ll work on it and get better.”

As a result, Beck was pulled for junior college transfer Aaron George to deliver the final out of the inning with a runner on first. George ended the inning with a swinging strikeout but the bats were called upon to gather the lead back.

George pitched a three up, three down seventh with two strikeouts that saved closer Todd Peterson for the final two innings. Peterson needed just 11 pitches in the eighth inning and retired six of the eight batters he faced to collect the save.

LSU will have a midweek game against South Alabama at 6 p.m. on Tuesday with potentially Cole Henry drawing the start.