LSU finishes a perfect 4-0 in its home baseball weekend
LSU baseball finished its rare four-game weekend with a flourish, using the run-producing bats of right fielder Jacob Berry and centerfielder Dylan Crews in a 15-0 blanking of Southern in a seven-inning contest Sunday evening in Alex Box Stadium.
Berry went 2 for 4 with a double, two runs and three RBI, while Crews was 2-for-2 with two RBI and two runs as the Tigers improved to 7-1.
Earlier in the day, three Tigers’ pitchers combined to throw a one-hitter in an 11-1 win over Towson.
LSU finished the weekend 4-0, outscoring Towson and Southern by a combined 41-3.
“The thing I’m most pleased with is the pitching, we only gave up three runs in four games,” LSU first-year coach Jay Johnson said. “Two of those were day games against aluminum bats in college baseball. That’s not easy to do. The pitchers commanded the zone throughout the weekend.
“I also like the fact that our team didn’t take anything for granted. The conventional thought out there would be, ‘Well, this is what you should do,’ and we did, we hardly gave up any runs and we scored a boatload of runs.”
LSU starter Will Helmers (1-0) allowed the Jags no runs in four innings of work, striking out four and walking one. Relievers Bryce Collins gave up a hit and struck out two of the four batters he faced in the Southern fifth before closer Trey Shaffer threw two scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
The Tigers had just seven hits because they didn’t need to swing the bat much. Twelve LSU batters walked and two got hit by pitches in first five innings, forcing in four LSU runs.
Three Southern pitchers combined to issue 14 walks, throw six wild pitches and hit two Tigers’ batters.
LSU plays again Wednesday night in Alex Box Stadium a 6:30 vs. UNO. Then, the Tigers face major competition next weekend in the Shriners Hospital for Children Classic in Houston’s Minute Park.
LSU plays unranked Oklahoma (5-2) on Friday at 3 p.m., No. 1 ranked Texas (9-0) on Saturday at 7 p.m. and unranked Baylor (3-4) on Sunday at 7 p.m.
Over the weekend, Oklahoma won two of three at home over Northwestern State, Texas swept a three-game home series over Alabama and Baylor won two of three at home over No. 23 Duke.