Published Apr 8, 2015
Rewind: LSU 9, Northwestern State 6
Bryan Lazare
TigerBait.com Senior Writer
Chris Chinea had his fourth straight three-hit game and drove in three runs to lead LSU to a 9-6 non-conference victory against Northwestern State on Wednesday night at The Box.
HOW THEY SCORED
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Northwestern State first inning - Joel Atkinson was hit by a pitch and moved to second on David Fry's sacrifice bunt. Atkinson went to third on Cort Brinson's single and scored on Chase Daughdrill's ground out to second baseman Jared Foster. NORTHWESTERN STATE 1, LSU 0
LSU first inning - With one out, Chris Sciambra hit a home run over the centerfield fence. NORTHWESTERN STATE 1, LSU 1
Northwestern State second inning - Cade Jones singled and was forced at second on Caleb Dugas' grounder to shortstop Alex Bregman. Dugas moved to second on Nick Heath's ground out to pitcher Jake Godfrey. Garrett Logan hit a two-run homer over the leftfield fence. NORTHWESTERN STATE 3, LSU 1
LSU second inning - With one out, Foster hit a home run over the leftfield fence. Grayson Byrd reached safely on a throwing error by the shortstop Atkinson. Byrd went to third on a throwing error by pitcher Evan Tidwell on a pickoff attempt. Byrd scored on Jake Fraley's sacrifice fly to the shortstop. Sciambra singled and moved to second on Tidwell's balk. Sciambra scored on Bregman's double. Bregman scored on Chinea's single. LSU 5 NORTHWESTERN STATE 3
LSU fourth inning - Fraley hit a leadoff home run over the rightfield fence. After Sciambra grounded out to the first baseman, Bregman walked. Bregman stole second and third and scored on Chinea's ground out to the second baseman. LSU 7, NORTHWESTERN STATE 3
Northwestern State seventh inning - Jones tripled and scored on Dugas' ground out to the second baseman Foster. Heath walked and advanced to third on Logan's single. Atkinson was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Heath scored when Fry forced Logan at third base with a ground ball to third baseman Danny Zardon. LSU 7, NORTHWESTERN STATE 5
LSU seventh inning - Bregman walked and stole second. Bregman scored on Chinea's single. LSU 8, NORTHWESTERN STATE 5
LSU eighth inning - Zardon singled and was forced out at second on Fraley's ground ball to the first baseman. Fraley went to third on Sciambra's single and scored on Chase Hymel's wild pitch. LSU 9 Northwestern State 5
Northwestern State ninth inning - Heath was hit by a pitch and Logan walked. Heath advanced to third base on Atkinson's fly out to rightfielder Beau Jordan. Heath scored when third baseman misplayed Fry's ground ball. LSU 9, Northwestern State 6
LSU'S MISSED SCORING OPPORTUNITIES
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LSU HITTER OF THE GAME
Chinea maintained his torrid hitting as he extended his hitting streak to 12 games. He collected three singles - two of which brought home runs. Chinea singled home Bregman in both the second and seventh innings. He also brought home Bregman with a ground out to the second base man in the fourth. Chinea, whose other hit came in the first, went 3-for-5. Chinea is batting .456 (26-for-57) during his hitting streak. Chinea's three hits once again equaled his career-best.
Chinea's comments: "I am just having fun. I have been confident at the plate all season. I am staying with my approach. I swing as hard as I can and where the ball goes, it goes. We have a veteran group of hitters who have been together two or three years. We are a confident group of guys. We are grinding each at bat trying to get as many runs as we can and get wins."
LSU PITCHER OF THE GAME
Godfrey, who failed to go two innings in either of his past two starts, gave the Tigers five solid innings of work. He gave up three runs and four hits with no walks and one strikeout. He hit the leadoff batter with the pitch of the game and that runner came around to score. Godfrey yielded a two-run homer to the ninth-hole hitter Logan in the second. After the home run, Godfrey retired 10 of the next 11 batters he faced. The victory was the sixth of the year for Godfrey.
Godfrey's comments: "They keep giving me opportunity after opportunity. I just have to step up. I had to use this game to get some innings. I have had down periods before pitching. I just have to get out there and work. I wanted to throw fast balls in the zone early and work on my secondary stuff later. I did all right. It was good to get out of the second inning."
NOTES
Conner Hale, who was hit in the left arm Tuesday, was not in the lineup. Byrd started at third base. When Northwestern State went to a lefthanded pitcher, Zardon batted for Byrd and took over at third base. Foster was back in the lineup at second base. Mark Laird was given the night off, so Beau Jordan was the rightfielder. Sciambra was the designated hitter. Scivicque was back behind the plate. . .Scivicque extended his hitting streak in the first inning. Scivicque, who doubled, has a 17-game hitting streak. . .Bregman has an eight-game hitting streak after getting a double in the second. . .Sciambra had three hits and hit his second home run in as many nights. . .Foster hit his team-leading eighth homer of the year. . .Bregman stole four bases which gave him 21 for the season. The four steals tied the LSU school record. Wally McMakin, Jared Mitchell and Leon Landry were the other Tigers players with four steals in a game. . .Bregman and Scivicque each had two hits. . .LSU stranded seven runners - five in scoring position. The Tigers were 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position. . .Tidwell gave up five runs and seven hits in two innings. However, three of the four second-inning runs were unearned due to Atkinson's error. . .The Demons bullpen gave up four runs and eight hits in six innings. . .Collin Strall threw a scoreless sixth with one strikeout. . .Doug Norman was unable to complete the seventh. He allowed two hits, walked one and hit a batter. After giving up two runs, Norman was replaced by Hunter Newman with two outs and two runners on base. Newman promptly got an inning-ending force play. . .Zac Person relieved Newman with one out and one runner on base in the eighth. He struck out both batters he faced. . .Parker Bugg struggled through the ninth. He hit a batter and walked a batter. The run, which was earned, scored on Zardon's error at third base. . .Brinson, Jones and Logan each had two of Northwestern State's eight hits. . .The Demons stranded seven runners - four in scoring position. Northwestern State was 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. . .LSU turned an unusual double play in the sixth, Daughdrill hit a line drive off Strall's glove. The ball was deflected to the left of Foster at second base. Foster extended fully for the ball and fired a strike to Bregman who turned the double play. . .LSU now has an 8-1 record against in-state schools this season. The Tigers' lone loss came against Nicholls State (6-3) on Feb. 18. LSU has two games remaining against Louisiana schools - Tulane on Apr. 21 and UNO on May 12. . .The Tigers, who have won six games in a row, are 29-5. Northwestern State, which has lost four games in a row, is 17-15. . .The paid attendance was 10,676. The actual crowd was about 4,800.
FROM THE CLUBHOUSE
Coach Paul Mainieri's comments: "Northwestern State battled us pretty hard tonight. But, we got 15hits and scored nine runs. We did a lot of good things. There were plays we could have made a little better and there were pitches we could have made a little better. Parker Bugg got some big outs against two of their best hitters in the ninth. Obviously, Godfrey was better than his last two outings. I am happy for the kid. His third, fourth and fifth innings were pretty good. They hit some balls hard, but we made the plays behind him."
UP NEXT
LSU will play host to Auburn in the opener of their three-game Southeastern Conference at The Box on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central time. Auburn (20-13, 4-8) defeated Georgia State 4-2 at home Wednesday night. Jared Poche (5-1, 3.10 ERA) will be the starting pitcher for LSU. The LSU-Auburn game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.