Observations from LSU's 8-2 win over Xavier on Saturday

The LSU Tigers were victorious Saturday night in game two against Xavier taking Saturday's matchup 8-2. The Tigers played a clean game from all aspects of the team. This game clinched a series win for LSU over Xavier, with the Tigers looking for a sweep on Sunday afternoon.

Here are my observations from the game.

The starting pitcher for LSU on Saturday night was Gage Jump and he did not disappoint. Jump came out guns blazing to start the game by striking out six batters in the first two innings. In the first inning he ran into a little trouble early by hitting a batter and allowing a single with one out. He didn’t let that adversity bother him by striking out the next two Xavier batters to end the top of the first inning without dealing any damage. His strikeout streak came to an end in the third inning as a he produced a fly ball out to Paxton Kling in right field. The left hander added a strikeout in the third, two more in the fourth, and one in the fifth. Jump gathered 10 strikeouts through his five innings of work.

Jump minimized damage throughout the night and filled the zone with strikes. He had great command and was poised from his first pitch to his last pitch. The last pitch of the night that he tossed resulted in a four-six-three double play to end his outing.

His final line was five innings, three hits, zero runs, one walk, and 10 strikeouts. Keeping his season ERA at 0.00.

Ethan Frey had another big moment during Saturday night. On Wednesday, Frey had a clutch pinch-hit RBI double in the 9th inning against Southeastern. The biggest moment in his young career that helped boost the Tigers to a late comeback win on Wednesday.

Ethan Frey came up in an early bases loaded at bat in the first inning on Saturday night. Smoking a ball over the left fielder’s head for a double. All three runners on base scored, after the booming line drive. The ball that Frey hit was hit on a rope and hit off the top of the wall.

Frey led off the bottom of the third inning with another line drive base hit to left field. That made him 2-for-2 on the night. His bat has started to get hot at the right time as the Tigers are days away from starting SEC play.

An unfortunate turn of events led to Frey being taken out of the game due to injury. After his leadoff single to start the third inning, he dove back into first base after an attempted pickoff move. He appeared to be holding his right arm/shoulder exiting the game while heading back to the dugout.

Saturday night was a good night for the offense as they collected eight runs on 11 hits throughout the entirety of the game. The basepaths were full all game for LSU as they tallied seven walks and two hit batters. Xavier pitching had no chance of slowing down the offense.

The extra base hit became a factor throughout the night as several players collected extra base hits. Hayden Travinski had a huge night with a solo home run to right field in the bottom of the fourth inning. That was not all for the big DH, the next inning he hit a ringing double down the left field line that scored two runners. He finished the night with three RBI. Ethan Frey went 2-for-2 matching Travinski with a three RBI night. Mac Bingham found a barrel in the sixth as he rang a double off the left field wall for his first hit of the night.

The Tigers didn’t reach base only because of hits, there were plenty of baserunners via walk and hit by pitch. – LSU batters reached base due to BB and – to HBP. Jared Jones and Michael Braswell III were both walked twice. Paxton Kling and Tommy White were both hit by a pitch.

After a great start by lefty Gage Jump, the bullpen took over in the sixth inning. The first pitcher after Jump was the hard throwing freshman left hander, Cam Johnson. He only faced one batter, however he retired the one batter he faced by forcing a line out to left field.

After Johnson’s duties, in came Sam Dutton. The right hander had some struggles on Saturday night as he lasted 1.1 IP and getting tagged for four hits. He gave up two earned runs and no batters were walked. Xavier simply just found the right holes on serval ground ball base hits. Dutton was the only Tiger reliver to give up runs on the night.

Following Dutton, Nic Bronzini was called to face one batter and successfully retired him by a strikeout. Bronzini only went 0.1 IP. Will Hellmers pitched the last two innings and closed out the game. He faced no trouble without allowing a base runner in the two innings he pitched.

The bullpen was very solid on Saturday night and didn’t give up much after a good performance from starting pitcher Gage Jump.

Stay up to date on all the LSU news with your premium subscription

Talk about this story and more in The Quad

Make sure you're caught up on all the latest LSU news

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage