LSU pitching gets 20 Ks in 6-2 win over UNA

Published 4:54 pm Saturday, March 8, 2025

Two LSU pitchers combined to strike out 20 hitters and the No. 1-ranked Tigers won their 10th straight game with a 6-2 win over North Alabama.

Jared Jones went 3-for-4 with two doubles and towering 2-run homer in the fifth inning.

But the story for the Tigers (15-1) was on the mound, where starter Anthony Eyanson (3-0) struck out 15 in his seven innings of work.

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Zac Cowan pitched the final two innings and, after walking the first batter he faced, struck out five of the next six without allowing a hit.

As has been his habit, Eyanson got off to a shaky start in the first inning, giving up a one-out walk followed by a single and a double for a quick 2-0 UNA lead.

“After that, I mean it was like Greg Maddux,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “It was like he started the game over from the sixth hitter on and was impossible to deal with.”

UNA did not get another hit off of Eyanson — or off of Cowan, for that matter — and finished with just two hits while while barely making contact.

Eyanson walked only two while throwing 95 pitches in his final tune-up before SEC play. He retired the last 13 batters he faced, striking out every batter in the Lions’ order at least once.

“Impossible to deal with if you’re an offense,” Johnson said. “He was throwing four pitches for strikes, throwing what he wanted to when he wanted to, and changing speeds.

“Really proud of him for hanging in there and minimizing the damage in the first.”

Eyanson’s 15 strikeouts were the most by an LSU pitcher since Ty Floyd also got 15 at the 2023 College World Series against Florida in the opening game of the championship finals.

LSU got one run in the bottom of the first when Ethan Frey’s double scored Jones and tied it up 2-2 in the third when Derek Curiel scored on a throwing error on Frey’s fly ball.

Jones two-run homer in the fifth followed an RBI double by Curiel to put the Tigers up for good.

“There was an open base there,” Johnson said of Jones’ fifth homer of the season. “I think it just shows Jared’s true maturity as a hitter … the guy (pitching) got it to two strikes relatively quickly and got a little bit of greedy, made a mistake. And there was really only one pitch to hit in the at-bat — and he hit it hard, absolutely.”

LSU added a run in the eighth when Chris Stanfield’s suicide squeeze bunt scored Steven Milam from third.