Baseball Game Recap: SELU 1 @ LSU 13...LSU is now 6-1

Box Score for Sunday, February 24 (Resumption of game started on Friday)

Player AB H R RBI BB K
Chris Sciambra cf  3  0  0  0  0  2 
   Jared Foster ph/rf  1  1  1  0  0  0 
Mark Laird rf  4  3  4  0  0  0 
   Andrew Stevenson ph/cf  1  0  0  0  0  1 
Alex Bregman ss  3  0  1  0  1  0 
   Casey Yocom ph/ss  1  1  1  1  0  0 
Raph Rhymes lf  5  4  3  5  0  0 
Mason Katz 1b  4  3  1  6  1  1 
JaCoby Jones 2b  5  1  1  0  0  1 
Alex Edward dh  4  1  0  1  0  0 
   Michael Barash ph  1  0  0  0  0  1 
Ty Ross c  3  2  0  0  0  1 
   Chris Chinea ph/c  2  2  1  0  0  0 
Christian Ibarra 3b  3  1  0  0  0  1 
   Tyler Moore ph/3b  2  0  0 0 0 0


Pitcher IP H R ER BB K
Ryan Eades  6.0  7  1  1  1  5 
Kevin Berry   1.0  0  0  0  0  0 
Hunter Devall   1.0  1  0  0  0  1 
Taylor Butler   0.2  0  0  0  0  0 
Chris Cotton   0.1  0  0  0  0  0 

Summary: LSU looked like a motivated team after suffering their first loss of the season on Saturday to BYU. The offense came out swinging the bats immediately as Mason Katz launched the third pitch after resuming play over the bleachers in left field for a three run homerun. It was his second on the season. The offense didn't stop as LSU went on to pound out 19 hits en route to their 6th win of the season.

Pitching: Ryan Eades looked as sharp as he has ever looked in his first inning on Friday and through the next few innings on Sunday. He was consistently hitting 94-96 on the gun with his fastball. As the game went on he began to struggle with his command in the fifth and sixth innings. He really labored through those 2 innings, but allowed only one run, while earning his first victory of the season. I really like the way he has looked through his first 2 starts. He looks poised to break out this season and provide the Tigers with a dangerous number 2 pitcher behind Nola.

The bullpen looked very solid today after struggling a little bit on Saturday against BYU. The bullpen allowed only one base runner through 3 innings of work and didn't allow a run.

Hitting: This was the type of offense that everyone has been hoping to see through the early part of the season. Mason Katz and Raph Rhymes who have gotten off to a little bit of a slow start really broke out today, going a combined 7 for 9 with 11 of the Tiger's 13 RBIs and scored 4 runs. Rhymes provided 2 doubles for the Tigers while Katz hit his 2nd homerun and 2nd double of the season.

Mark Laird had a really nice day at the plate as he was 3 for 4 on the afternoon. He smacked an opposite field double early in the game which was really nice to see. He also scored 4 runs.

Ty Ross was 2 out of 3 on the afternoon. He also threw a laser down to second to cut down a runner trying to advance on a ball that bounced in the dirt.

All in all the Tigers ended up with 7 extra base hits on the afternoon - 6 doubles and 1 homerun.

The LSU starting pitching continues to be dominant as they have allowed 7 ER in 38.2 IP on the season. That comes out to a 1.63 ERA. The starting staff has also struck out 38 hitters in those 38.2 innings while walking only 10.


Saturday: I won't dive in to Saturday's game too much as LSU took a tough 9-4 loss to BYU. A couple of take aways from the game - good and bad.

1. LSU took 7 walks on the game and didn't strike out a single time at the plate. LSU is showing really good discipline early this season and is taking walks and cutting down on the strikeouts. Good things happen when the ball is being put in play and there are runners on base.

2. Too many sacrifice bunts. This has been discussed way more than enough, but I think we bunted every single time there was a runner on first base with no outs in this game. Occasionally bunting is good, but these guys can hit as was evidenced this afternoon. Let the kids swing the bats.

3. Bonvillian is really struggling to get through the fifth inning in his starts. Not bashing on the kid. He has only made two starts, but through those starts it is becoming clear that he is getting tired and losing his stuff around the fourth inning of ball games. He looks great early on. I think when the SEC slate rolls around we are going to need our Sunday starter to go a little bit deeper in the ball game. I am really looking forward to watching Cody Glenn in his second start against ULL on Tuesday as I think he has the potential to crack the starting rotation by the end of the season.

Note: We should see Rumbelow on Tuesday against ULL as he is supposed to be making his return.

All in all good week for Tiger baseball as they took 2 games out of 3 this weekend and 3 out of 4 on the week.