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LSU evens series with Florida 13-1 behind Cole Henry's historic night

Led by some truly extraordinary pitching from freshman Cole Henry and a second straight night of potent offense, LSU evened the series in commanding fashion, knocking off Florida 13-1.

Coach Paul Mainieri was simply in awe of what he saw on Friday night. As the 13-year head coach for one of the most historic programs in college baseball he has seen it all yet he was mesmerized by what he saw from his freshman pitcher Cole Henry.

The story of the night once again was Henry, who continues to steal the spotlight whenever he’s on the mound. Henry faced the tough task of trying to subdue a Florida lineup that had all the confidence in the world after attacking LSU pitchers for 20 hits and 16 runs on Thursday.

“He’s got that temperament that you never know when he’s in trouble or when he’s pitching great and he’s a lot like Aaron Nola in that respect,” Mainieri said. “That kid is amazing and I think he’s got as bright a future as any pitcher we’ve had here.”

Not only did Henry subdue the lineup but at times, made the Gator hitters look downright silly. In four innings of work on Friday, the freshman matched his career high in strikeouts at nine but did take 72 pitches to do so.

Offensively, the Tigers continued to find success in getting on base and after starting 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, started an onslaught of runs the Gators couldn’t match.

The turning point came in the fourth with LSU clinging to a 2-1 lead and two away with freshman Drew Bianco at the plate. Bianco was able slap a double into left field and after Florida elected to intentionally walk Josh Smith, Brandt Broussard came through in the two hole with an RBI single that extended the Tiger lead to 3-1.

LSU would tack on two more runs in the fourth, doing it all with two outs including an RBI single from Antoine Duplantis that made it 5-1. Duplantis has been red hot this series, going 2-for-6 on Friday after a 4-for-5 outing to open the series on Thursday.

The Tiger offense has been all over the Gator pitchers, combining for 32 hits and 22 runs in the two games combined. Friday night alone, the lineup batted 16-of-40 for a .400 average. Daniel Cabrera and Cade Beloso combined to go 5-for-10 with five RBI and a homerun a piece.

Beloso came a triple shy of the cycle and said it would take some pretty strange mishaps for it to happen for him.

“It would have to go by the McDonald’s sign and the centerfielder would have to trip and the rightfielder would have to bobble it,” Beloso said. “Some crazy stuff would have to happen.”

Yet the story of the game continued to be the electric pitching from the freshman Henry. A four run cushion to work with didn’t keep Henry from being aggressive as he struck out his 10th batter in the fifth inning to set a new career-high.

Pitch count became an issue as an error from Broussard on a routine groundball kept the inning alive. The only thing that could stop Henry was the pitch count as he would strike out the side in the fifth, bringing his total to 12, but needed 98 pitches to finish the inning.

“It’s nice because I just sit out there and don’t have to do much, I love it when Cole’s on the mound,” Cabrera said. “You know he’s going to compete and give you his very best and he’s super hard to hit.”

After a long half inning in the fifth for LSU on offense, where the Tigers added five more runs to its lead, Henry lasted one out into the sixth inning, enough to get a curtain call applause from the crowd.

The 12 strikeouts from Henry were the most by an LSU pitcher since Zack Hess recorded 13 strikeouts in a Friday night win over Toledo in the 2018 season and the most in an SEC game since Alex Lange threw 13 in a win over Kentucky in 2015.

Todd Peterson made his first appearance of the series in relief of Henry and pitched four scoreless innings to close the game.

LSU will look to clinch the series Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. with sophomore Eric Walker drawing the start.

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