Tigers rally to beat Alabama in SEC series road opener
No. 14 LSU scored five runs off a pair of two-out rallies and four Tigers’ relievers were credited with five shutout innings in a 6-5 victory at Alabama Friday night in the opener of a three-game SEC series.
Game two between the Tigers (31-14, 13-9 SEC) and the Crimson Tide (25-21, 9-13 SEC) is set for a 7:30 p.m. Saturday night start.
After LSU center fielder Dylan Crews’ RBI single in top of the sixth gave the Tigers their eventual margin of victory, relievers Riley Cooper, Eric Reyzelman, Jacob Hasty and Paul Gervase retired the last nine of 11 batters.
LSU banged 12 hits off Alabama pitchers starter Garrett McMillan and reliever Brock Guffey. Three Tigers had multiple hits led by first baseman Tre’ Morgan’s 3 of 5 performance that included a two-run, two-out homer in a five-run fifth inning rally that flipped game momentum.
“When (second baseman) Cade (Doughty) got to third (on a wild pitch), it made my job a whole lot easier,” Morgan said. “I was just trying to find a pitch over the plate. When I get to two strikes, I just try to foul off pitches until I get a mistake. He (McMillan) left an off-speed pitch up and I got the barrel on it.”
LSU starting pitcher Ma’Khail Hilliard didn’t have his best stuff. But he managed to hold Alabama to two runs in the first four innings while the Tigers were being blanked by Alabama’s McMillan.
But both McMillan and Hillard didn’t make it past the fifth.
The Tigers scored five runs (four coming with two outs) on four hits in the fifth. LSU catcher Tyler McManus hit a solo home run to lead off, third baseman Jacob Berry’s RBI single scored Crews, Doughty’s RBI double plated Berry and Morgan’s two-run homer brought home Doughty for a 5-2 lead.
Alabama tied the game 5-5 with three runs on five hits in the bottom of the fifth. The Crimson Tide had three straight singles, the last an RBI stroke, that sent Hilliard to the bench in favor of reliever Cooper.
Cooper eventually got out of the inning, but not before Tide catcher Dominic Tamez and left fielder Tommy Seidl had RBI singles (the runs being charged to Hilliard) to even the game.
Alabama’s Guffey replaced McMillan to start the LSU sixth. Again, the Tigers came through with a two-out rally with Crews’ RBI single scoring left fielder Josh Stevenson for a 6-5 advantage.
From there, it was a matter of which team would have the better relief pitching.
Cooper, who was credited with the win, exited with two outs in the Alabama sixth giving way to fireballing righty Reyzelman. He struck out four straight batters, including retiring the Tide in order in the seventh on 14 pitches.
Reyzelman lasted a third of the Alabama eighth, being pulled after walking Tide third baseman Zane Denton. LSU lefty reliever Hasty not only struck out Tide second baseman Bryce Eblin, but McManus threw out Denton who was trying to steal to end the inning.
The 6-10 Gervase was credited with his fifth save of the year, closing out the game for LSU in the ninth.
“Fundamentals, competitiveness and character are going to decide one-run games, and I think was showed all of those tonight,” said Johnson said. “Our pitchers did a great job throwing strikes, we strung together some quality at-bats and we made some nice plays on defense. We didn’t have a great flow to the game early, but we stayed with it, and that showed the competitiveness and character of our team.”