No. 12 LSU has player's only meeting following 2-0 upset loss to McNeese
On one of the worst hitting nights in recent Tiger memory, the McNeese State Cowboys did just enough to pull out a 2-0 upset win over No. 12 LSU.
LSU (17-8, 4-2) made a few lineup tweeks on Wednesday by switching left fielder Daniel Cabrera to designated hitter and putting freshman Giovanni DiGiacomo out in left field. The purpose of this was to potentially put Cabrera on the mound for the latter innings with eight pitchers currently unavailable to pitch.
Sophomore pitcher Ma’Khail Hilliard drew his second midweek start of the season and began the evening by retiring the first six batters of the game. It took the sophomore pitcher 17 pitches to get through two innings but found some trouble in the third, loading the bases with two outs.
A wild pitch brought home the first run for McNeese and Hilliard was pulled for relief pitcher Clay Moffitt, who had pitched five scoreless innings on the season. Moffitt would get the third out of the inning, keeping the damage limited to 1-0.
Moffitt would throw two more innings of scoreless baseball to keep his perfect ERA as the Tigers went to Aaron George in the sixth.
“I thought Clay did a really nice job tonight,” Mainieri said. “He’s been hanging in there through his career and I give him a lot of credit, he did a nice job tonight.”
The LSU offense started sluggish once again as two hits through six innings against McNeese starting pitcher Brett Payne had the Tiger batters searching for answers. The only hits to that point came from leadoff man Josh Smith and DiGiacomo, but the rest of the Tiger batters seemed frustrated with the strike zone.
The Tigers could only muster four hits on the night and following the game, the players had an impromptu meeting with team leaders Zack Hess, Josh Smith, Antoine Duplantis and Clay Moffitt leading the charge. The main message, the team “just needs to be better. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes after the coaches left and was very animated out in right field.
“I’m one of the older guys, been through the ringer and it means a lot being from Baton Rouge,” Moffitt said. “It hits close to the heart and you have to appreciate what you’re given. What we did is unacceptable for us and future players, you know if the ‘09 team or ‘91,’93,’96,’97 teams saw what happened tonight, they’d be disappointed.”
“We obviously have to step it up, we’ve been playing really bad honestly,” Smith added. “Pitching’s been pretty good but our hitters have just been struggling a lot and I think some of the guys are feeling some pressure a little bit.”
Smith said it feels like more of a matter of guys pressing at the plate than just coming out flat.
Third baseman Chris Reid seemed particularly miffed as the senior, who struck out for the second time to close the sixth inning had some choice words for the umpire walking away.
“You have to put this stuff behind you because it’s a long season but at the same time you have to take stuff from it as well,” Reid said. “We have to go out and compete at a higher level. We’re wearing LSU Tigers on your chest and it means something and not just to people on the team but to people around the city and the state.”
An insurance run in the eighth inning from the Cowboys off another passed ball left the Tigers in a 2-0 hole with six outs remaining. Second baseman Brandt Broussard rocked a leadoff single up the middle and was able to steal two bases off a wild pitch that put a runner at third with no outs.
After a walk to Smith put runners on the corners with no outs, the heart of the LSU lineup went down 1-2-3 to end the scoring threat.
The Tigers will have a quick turnaround as they prepare for a three game series at No. 2 Mississippi State starting on Thursday.