BATON ROUGE, La. – Five LSU pitchers combined to hold Southeastern Louisiana to five hits and a pair of big innings allowed the No. 4 Tigers to pull away for an 8-2 victory in non-conference action Wednesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
The Lions (14-6) gave up three runs in the third and four in the seventh to allow the Tigers (17-5) to win for the eighth time in its last nine games.
The Lions' lone offense came on solo home runs by junior
Taylor Schwaner and senior
Carson Crites. Schwaner blasted his team-high sixth home run of the season in the fourth inning, while Crites hit home run number two of the season in the Lion half of the ninth.
Sophomore
Carlisle Koestler (1-2) took the loss on the mound for the Lions, allowing four runs (all earned) in three innings of work. SLU made liberal use of its bullpen throughout, as Southeastern head coach
Matt Riser called on seven different pitchers in Wednesday's contest.
LSU took the lead in the bottom of the second inning off Koestler. Zach Watson drew a one-out walk, stole second and scored one out later when Josh Smith deposited a double over the head of senior
Jacob Seward in centerfield to stake the Tigers to a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers padded their lead in the bottom of the third. After Michael Papierski drew a walk and Antoine Duplantis singled to put a pair on, Greg Deichmann powered a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall, giving LSU a 4-0 advantage with the opposite-field shot.
Southeastern put the leadoff runner aboard against Zach Hess (3-0) in the first three innings, but could not scratch out a run until Schwaner struck in the fourth inning. With one out, the Slidell, Louisiana native powered the first pitch he saw from Hess over the left field fence to cut the Tiger lead to 4-1.
LSU looked to get the run back and more in the bottom of the fourth. A single by Jake Slaughter chased Koestler, then SLU sophomore reliever
Payton Robinson was greeted by a single by Smith to put a pair of runners on with no outs. However, Robinson bore down to retire the next three batters, striking out Kramer Robertson to end the threat and keep the deficit at three runs.
Both bullpens were effective over the next several innings, until LSU added to its lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Tigers loaded the bases with one out and Zach Watson lifted a fly ball deep enough to left to score a run and put the LSU advantage back to four runs.
SLU junior
Josh Green hit Slaughter to reload the bases, then Smith cleared the bases with a double just out of the reach of a diving Seward to put the Tigers up, 8-1.
Crites lessened the final margin in the top of the ninth inning. The Amarillo, Texas native drilled a one-out home run over the left field fence to cut the final tally to 8-2. LSU reliever Nick Bush retired freshman
Trey Morgan and sophomore
Scottie Sanders to close out the win for the Tigers.
Southeastern will return to Southland Conference play this week, traveling to Houston Baptist for a three-game series. The series opens with a 2 p.m. contest on Friday, continues on Saturday at 1 p.m. and concludes on Sunday at 2 p.m. All three games can be heard live in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9), online at www.LionSports.net/listenlive and via the TuneIn Radio app.
LSU 8, Southeastern 2 (Mar 22, 2017 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Southeastern........ 000 100 001 - 2 5 2 (14-6)
LSU..................... 013 000 40X - 8 10 0 (17-5)
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Pitchers: Southeastern - Koestler, Carlisle; Robinson, Payton (4); Tassin, Bryce (5); Hurst, Cliff (7); Pickett, Gage (7); Green, Josh (7); Graffeo, Carlo (8) and Pace, Evan;
Wasinger, Daniel. LSU - Zack Hess; Russell Reynolds (5); Matthew Beck (5); Todd Peterson (7); Nick Bush (8) and Michael Papierski; Jordan Romero.
Win-Zack Hess (3-0) Loss-Koestler, Carlisle (1-2) T-2:46 A-11211
HR SLU - Crites, Carson (2); Schwaner, Taylor (6).
HR LSU - Greg Deichmann (8).
Koestler, C. faced 1 batter in the 4th.
Hurst, C. faced 2 batters in the 7th.
