Tigers show no mercy in another run-rule victory

Published 12:16 am Thursday, February 19, 2026

By Scooter Hobbs

American Press

LSU’s Josh Pearson saw only one pitch the entire game Wednesday, but it was all he needed to send baseball purists scurrying for the official scoring rule book.

The pinch hitter jerked the first pitch over the leftfield bleachers in the bottom of the eighth to invoke the mercy rule into the Tigers’ 12-1 victory over Nicholls State.

It was the unbeaten Tigers’ third mercy-rule win in their five games — and, yes, by the book Pearson’s three-run bomb qualifies as a “walk-off” homer even though LSU was in no danger of losing the game.

So the Tigers ended the game much like they started it.

LSU fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first on a solo home run by Nicholls’ Nico Rijo-Berger.

But LSU wasted little time  tying the game in the bottom of the first when Steve Milam scored on a wild pitch, then took the lead for good later in the same inning on Trent Carraway’s two-out grand slam.

LSU got another run in the second on Jake Brown’s RBI ground out, but didn’t score again until getting two in the sixth and another in the seventh to set the stage for the big eighth.

LSU’s Jake Brown went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and was robbed of another RBI double on spectacular catch by Berger, the Nicholls rightfielder.

The Tigers were held to a season-low eight hits, with Brown the only LSU batter with more than one hit.

Berger’s home run was one of three hits Nicholls got in the first inning off of LSU starter Zac Cowan, who lasted only one out into the second inning.

Head coach Jay Johnson said Cowan was “only going to pitch two innings regardless” and was impressed that limited the damage to one run.

Four LSU relievers then combined to shut out Nicholls over the final seven innings without allowing another hit.

They did have to pitch around five walks. Overall, however, Johnson thought, “It was our best game from the mound for this year. I thought Saturday (5-2 win over Milwaukee) was really good too, but really proud of them today.”

Dax Dathe, Zion Theophilus, and Santiago Garcia pitched the middle innings and Reagan Ricken was the most impressive while pitching the last three innings to get credit forva save while allowing only one base runner on a hit batter.

“It was good to get a couple of guys on the mound for the first time, like Reagan and Zion, because they’re going to be big parts of the pitching staff for the next three years,” Johnson said. “Very good overall job by our staff today.”

Nicholls State fell to 0-4.

LSU will now take to the road for the first time this season beginning Friday when the Tigers play Indiana (1-3) in the Live Like Lou Jax College Classic in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Tigers will also face Notre Dame on Saturday and Central Florida on Sunday.