LSU makes short work of Cowboys
Published 6:00 pm Thursday, May 10, 2018
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<p class="p1">BATON ROUGE — For a while here Wednesday night it was hard to tell when pregame batting practice ended and the LSU-McNeese baseball game began.
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<p class="p3">It was a pretty seamless transition.
<p class="p3">But LSU’s offensive onslaught lasted a lot longer in a shortened game and the Tigers’ bullpen had a rare clean and uneventful night as LSU put together a 13-3 victory over the Cowboys.
<p class="p3">At least it was quick.
<p class="p3">The 10-run rule — rare for college baseball even in the midweek— was enforced as both coaches had agreed to it in advance, and both teams went home early after the top of the seventh.
<p class="p3">Early on it looked as if it might last until next week.
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<p class="p3">The Cowboys jumped to a 2-0 lead and answered LSU’s three-run bottom-of-the first with another run in the second to tie it up at 3-apiece.
<p class="p3">“I thought our offense did a really good job of coming out, swinging the bats, setting the tone,” McNeese coach Justin Hill said. “We got big two-out hit by (Dustin) Duhon …”
<p class="p3">That tone-setter was contagious — but mostly in the Tigers’ dugout. LSU broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the second — capped by Daniel Cabrera’s three-run homer — and put it away it away with four more in the third for a 12-3 lead.
<p class="p3">Duhon had two hits and the two RBIs, but no other Cowboy had more than one hit.
<p class="p3">LSU (29-20) had 14 hits in its six at-bats and, despite the shortened game, the Tigers were a run shy of tying their season high for runs.
<p class="p3">“Obviously we needed to get that one tonight,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri, whose Tigers are fighting for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, “The biggest thing of the night was that we just swung the bats so well.”
<p class="p3">Cabrera went 3-for-4 with four RBIs, while Lake Charles’ Beau Jordan went 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored against his hometown school. Fellow Barbe High alum Hunter Feduccia also had an RBI single. Antoine Duplantis scored three runs with two RBIs on a pair of hits.
<p class="p3">McNeese didn’t help its cause with three errors along with a couple of other plays that could have been made. Four of LSU’s runs were unearned.
<p class="p3">“It kind of snowballed into not being sharp defensively,” Hill said. “We didn’t control the running game.”
<p class="p3">McNeese (22-27) had a two-game winning streak against LSU broken.
<p class="p3">The game was a chance for both starting pitchers to bounce back — McNeese’s Tyler Wesley and LSU’s Caleb Gilbert were both roughed up in their last appearances — and neither fared well this time either while not getting out of the second inning.
<p class="p3">LSU chased Wesley with one out in the bottom of the second on Cabrera’s towering three-run homer that gave the Tigers an 8-3 lead.
<p class="p3">But LSU’s Gilbert was already gone by then, lifted with two outs in the top of the inning after giving up three runs on five hits and two walks.
<p class="p3">“I liked the matchup with Tyler going against LSU,” Hill said. “We knew that they were aggressive. We just didn’t make quality pitches. We left a lot of balls across the middle of the plate (and) when you do that against an good offensive team that can run, it doesn’t bode well for you.”
<p class="p3">But while the Tigers kept piling on the runs, the LSU bullpen also stopped the bleeding.
<p class="p3">After Gilbert’s struggles, four Tigers pitchers combined to hold the Cowboys scoreless over the final five innings on two hits.
<p class="p3">Nick Storz, the Tigers’ most highly touted recruit this season who had thrown one inning before Wednesday while recovering from fall shoulder surgery, gave LSU two encouraging innings.
<p class="p3">The freshman hit 93-mph on several fastballs while striking out two and allowing one hit.
<p class="p3">McNeese?
<p class="p3">“There weren’t a whole lot of things we did right on the mound — other than Austin Briggs,” Hill said.
<p class="p3">Briggs gave the Cowboys 2 1/3 innings while allowing one unearned run.
<p class="p3">“He attacked the zone, got a lot of quick outs,” Hill said.
<p class="p3">McNeese steps out of conference this weekend with a three-game home series against Prairie View A&M.
<p class="p3">LSU has a key Southeastern Conference series at home against Alabama.
<p class="p1"><strong>LSU </strong><strong>13, </strong><strong>McNeese </strong><strong>3</strong>
<p class="p3"><strong>LSU vs. Prairie View</strong>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><strong><strong>Friday </strong>6 p.m.</strong></span>
