UPDATE: LSU uses big inning to rout Indiana

Published 10:44 pm Friday, February 20, 2026

Friday was the first time this baseball season that LSU has trailed as late as the eighth inning.

It was a false alarm.

Zach Yorke’s 3-run homer ignited a 9-run eighth inning as the Tigers “rallied” back to coast to a 14-7 victory over Indiana in the opening game of the Liv Like Lou Jax College Baseball Classic.

The Tigers (6-0) trailed 5-4 entering the top of the eighth before Yorke hit a 2-0 pitch towering against the yellow stripe atop the 30-foot brick fence in right-center field to put the Tigers up for good, 7-5.

“I thought it hit the brick,” Yorke said afterwards, which would changed it to a 2-run double to put LSU up by one.

“He hit it so hard the camera couldn’t move that fast,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said.

Umpires did a lengthy video review before confirming it was indeed a home run.

LSU wasn’t done yet.

The Tigers eventually sent 14 batters to the plate in the inning, the oddity coming on a 2-run bunt-single by Tanner Reaves when runners on second and third were in motion on the pitch.

Seth Dardar, Mason Braun and Jake Brown also had RBIs in the big inning.

“That was a special inning,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “That’s one you could put on videotape and say that’s how you do it.

“We have a lot of mature hitters. We have a lot of hitters that we can put in a good spot to be successful. It was a great performance up and down the lineup.”

The Tigers added a run in the ninth after Indiana got two back in the bottom of the eighth.

Gavin Guidry (2-0) got the win after pitching the seventh inning on one hit and no runs. After missing all of last season with a back injury, the former Barbe two-way star hasn’t allowed a run and has two wins and a save in his three appearances.

“It’s great win for our team,” Johnson said. “I thought we handled small adversity very well.”

LSU (6-0) will be back at it Saturday at 11 a.m. when the Tigers play Notre Dame. The Irish played Central Florida in Friday’s second game.

Cooper Moore (1-0, 1.50) will be on the mound for the Tigers.

Before the big eighth inning, it was a frustrating game for the Tigers.

LSU outhit Notre Dame 18-8, but much of it was wasted before the big inning.

The Tigers got the leadoff man in seven of nine innings, but stranded 18 runners for the game.

They were 0-for-4 with the bases loaded. They also had three base runners thrown out.

“I thought it was an elite performance hitting wise,” Johnson said. “But we took ourselves out of some opportunities on the bases early in the game. The team responded to it.

“We hit a lot of balls hard.”

Yorke had four RBIs for the game, with a sacrifice fly in the first inning, and was one of three Tigers in the middle of the order with three three hits.

Braun and Steven Milam also each had three hits, both with a pair of RBIs.

The Tigers also struggled defensively early on as three errors led to three unearned runs.

Casan Evans started for the Tigers and went five innings, allowing three hits and three runs, all in a rough third inning. He also walked two and due to a throwing error, only two of the three runs were earned.

“I thought he let it get to him a little bit in the middle of that three run inning, and I thought he overcame it.

“One call he doesn’t agree with, or one bad play, should not take a player of that caliber, a pitcher of that caliber, out of their game. He’s smart and he’s really good, and so when he learns to get over the small adversity a little quicker, you’re going to start seeing the six innings one run type of lines from him.”