LSU drops first home game of the season in 5-2 loss to California

In the first game of a double header Saturday for LSU baseball, the Tiger’s weren’t able to salvage a great outing from freshman pitcher Cole Henry as five runs crossed the plate in the sixth inning, resulting in a 5-2 loss.

Things were running relatively smoothly for LSU (10-4) through five innings, at least defensively. Five shutout innings between freshman Cole Henry and sophomore Ma’Khail Hilliard had the Tigers up 1-0 heading to the sixth.

With closer Todd Peterson in for the six out save, a disastrous inning for the junior resulted in five runs and a 5-1 deficit in a game where hits were hard to come by. In what took only 15 pitches, Peterson allowed four hits and the five runs that blew the game wide open.

Peterson in his last two save attempts has given up eight runs on nine hits and two walks.

Trailing 5-1 in the sixth, the Tiger bats woke up with a solo homerun from shortstop Josh Smith, his first of the season. Antoine Duplantis then broke out of a weekend funk, picking up his first hit of the weekend. The rally would end there leaving the Tigers in a three run hole going into the seventh.

Walks to Chris Reid and Hal Hughes brought Friday night’s hero Josh Smith up to the plate for an encore performance with two outs. Smith would pop out to left field to end the game.

Henry earned his first weekend start as an LSU pitcher after a string of successful outings out of the bullpen. Henry sat down his first five batters of the game without a strikeout.

Henry would strike out California slugger Andrew Vaughn in the third inning for his first of the afternoon and brought Vaughn to 0-for-5 on the weekend. The freshman looked poised and efficient, throwing 44 strikes to 20 balls in four innings of work and two hits.

Much like Friday night, the LSU bats took time to warm up as the Tigers didn’t put anyone on base until the second inning, a walk to third baseman Chris Reid. Shortstop Josh Smith blasted a sharp grounder to right field for the Tigers first hit of the game and extended his hit streak to 13 games.

Henry was replaced in the fifth inning for sophomore Hilliard in a scoreless game, finishing with two hits, no runs and a strikeout. The 44 pitches to 19 balls was a high point as the freshman kept from walking any batters, a nasty trend that’s developed across the pitching staff.

Hilliard held down the fort with two strikeouts in the fifth inning and sat the Golden Bears down in order.

With LSU still unable to get runners on base, catcher Brock Mathis skipped the whole process altogether. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, the sophomore rocketed a solo home run to the left field bleachers to put the Tigers up 1-0 with two innings to play.

The hit brought Mathis to 6-of-9 with two homeruns over his last four games after having three hits total in his first 10 games.

LSU will look to close out the series in 45 minutes with Eric Walker on the mound