No. 10 Baseball Completes Series Sweep Against UK
BATON ROUGE, La. (LSUSports.Internet) The No. 10 LSU baseball group defeated Kentucky, 7-2, to complete the collection sweep on SEC Opening Weekend Sunday afternoon in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. With the win, LSU improves to fifteen-five at the season and three-0 in SEC play. Kentucky drops to thirteen-7 general and 0-three in the conference. LSU will go back to action with a midweek recreation in opposition to Nicholls Wednesday at 6:30 p.M. CT in The Box. The sport may be online only thru the SEC Network+. Fans can listen to the competition at the LSU Sports Radio Network. LSU starter Eric Walker allowed one run on three hits and struck out 5 in four. One inning. Matthew Beck (2-0) earned the win for the Tigers after blanking Kentucky over 2.1 innings, on foot one and putting out three. Mikhail Hilliard allowed one run on one hit, walked two, and struck out one, and Todd Peterson closed it out, working 1.1 innings, on foot one and placing out two. “Eric’s fastball command has been good,” stated LSU assistant train Nolan Cain. “He changed into spotting the fastball, getting a few swing-and-misses via raising the fastball when hitters had been looking ahead to a breaking ball or a trade-up. “Beck has one of those fastballs that hitters don’t see thoroughly,” Cain said.
“He’s got some deception in his shipping, he stands 6-7, so loads are coming at the hitters. The biggest aspect approximately Matthew is that he competes, and you experience in reality precisely when the ball is in his hand.” Kentucky southpaw Dillon Marsh allowed one run on hits, walked, and struck out 5 in his 3.1-inning begin. Right-hander Hunter Rigsby (zero-1) suffered the loss after allowing three runs on three hits. He did no longer document an out. Third baseman Chris Reid led off the bottom of the fourth inning with an unmarried to the proper area and superior to 1/3 on a fielding error through the second one baseman, which placed runners at the corners for the Tigers. Designated hitter Saul Garza dropped an unmarried into the middle field, which drove in Reid and gave LSU the 1-zero lead. In the top of the 5th inning, 0.33 baseman Coltyn Kessler and shortstop Austin Schultz ripped back-to-back base hits and moved to score a role on a sacrifice bunt.
Marshall Gei squared round to bunt with one out the catcher, and Kessler scored on the safety squeeze to tie the game, 1-1. The Tigers opened the bottom of the 5th inning with three consecutive base hits. When center fielder Zach Watson ripped the third base hit to left discipline, it allowed 2nd baseman Brandt Broussard to attain. A sacrifice bunt placed runners in a scoring role, Reid drove in shortstop Josh Smith and Watson to propel LSU to the 4-1 lead. A stroll from Smith and an unmarried using Watson put runners on first and second within the backside of the 7th inning. A wild pitch moved the pair into scoring position, and proper fielder Antoine Duplantis smoked a triple off the proper area wall to plate Watson and Smith. “That became a sincerely large at-bat for Antoine,” Cain said.
“We were thinking about possibly bunting there, but Antoine hits a ball off the wall, and if the wind is not blowing in, that’s his 6th homer of the season. The element about Antoine is that he’s going to have deep at-bats, and once he sees a pitch more than one time, he’s going to be on it.” Duplantis scored on a groundout by way of left fielder Daniel Cabrera to wrap up the inning with the 7-1 LSU lead. With outs inside the pinnacle of the eighth inning, exact hitter T.J. Collett hit a solo shot to right discipline to cut the LSU lead to 7-2.
