Texas takes down LSU in finale in 11-1 rout

Published 7:00 pm Monday, February 26, 2018

BATON ROUGE — No comeback for LSU this time.

Apparently there are limits to anything.

“Today just everything fell apart,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said after Texas salvaged the final game of a heralded early-season weekend with an 11-1 runaway against the Tigers.

“Bad ball game. The best thing we can do is just flush it.”

The Tigers (4-3) had more pitching woes and, despite getting 11 hits, spent most of the afternoon searching for a timely one.

“When you get in game like this it’s not much it’s not much fun at all,” Mainieri said. “But it’s still just one game. We won the series against a good ball club, rich in tradition. Friday we played a phenomenal game (13-4), Saturday was an amazing comeback (10-5), today we just ran out of gas, didn’t have enough in the tank to pull it out.”

Starter Todd Peterson lasted four innings, giving up five runs on seven hits. That’s been a familiar problem for the Tigers, who still have only one quality startf or the season. But the bullpen, which bailed out Caleb Gilbert’s rough start Saturday night, didn’t fare any better Sunday as the Longhorns kept building on the lead.

“ It’s not just the pitching,” Mainieri said. “That’s the easy thing to say when you’re down 4-0, 5-0. We had chance the first two innings to be able to take a lead and who knows  how they (Texas) would have reacted after losing the first two.”

LSU stranded 12 runners for the game and didn’t avoid the shut out until scoring its only run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

The Tigers (4-3) had their chances early. But they stranded five runners in the first two innings, four of them in scoring position, and allowed Texas starter Blair Henley to settle in for six scoreless innings.

LSU loaded the bases in the first inning before Nick Webre hit into a double play to end the inning.

But Mainieri thought the key came when, with one out and runners on second the third, Texas walked LSU’s Hunter Feduccia.

“That was an unfortunate walk,” Mainieri said. “I didn’t want that walk. Feduccia is a contact hitter. He would have put the ball in play, almost a guarantee we get a run there take the lead.”

Instead, “Bang-bang play at first on the double play. I thought he was safe and we didn’t get the call. If we get the lead there, who knows …”

Mainieri also noted that Beau Jordan would have been the batter with two outs if he hadn’t been suspended for the game after his obscene gesture at a Texas pitcher led to his being ejected from Saturday’s game.

“It would have been nice to have a four-year guy up in that situation,” Mainieri said.

Texas soon showed the Tigers the value of a timely  hit.

Peterson, who got through the first two innings scoreless on just 18 pitches, had a chance to get out of the decisive third inning.

But the Longhorns used clutch hits for four runs in the inning, all with two outs, highlighted by Zach Zubia’s three-run double.

The Horns added another in the fourth, two more in the fifth and a four-spot in the seventh while taking batting practice against the LSU bullpen.

Ma’Khail Hilliard and Brandon Nowak pitched a scoreless innings apiece out of the bullpen, but Devin Fontenot gave up two in his inning, Will Reese gave up three in just one-third of an inning and Clay Moffitt gave up one in 1.2 innings of work.

“We didn’t take advantage of some early opportunities and kind of the game get out of hand,” Mainieri said, “and it started snowballing from there.”