Top ranked LSU Baseball played four games in four days this weekend and showed why they are the favorite to lift a National Championship trophy this season.
The Tigers outscored their opponents 50-4 in those 4 games and improved their record to 11-1 on the season.
LSU also scored the most runs in an LSU baseball game since 2014 in Saturday’s contest against Central Connecticut State with 26. Monday night’s 11-0 victory is the third straight game LSU has run ruled their opponents.
For their second matchup of the weekend against Butler, LSU elected to start sophomore right-hander Thatcher Hurd. Senior Cade Beloso started at first base and junior Brayden Jobert was named the starter at third base. The rest of the defensive lineup were the usual suspects.
Hurd brought his A-game and made a case to be in the conversation as a starter once SEC play begins. In his first two innings, he faced six batters and came away with six strikeouts. Hurd did not allow a hit until the fourth inning and insinuated that his work in the off season was the reason for his success on the mound.
The California native, who was credited with his first win of the season, pitched a total of 73 pitches in six innings and threw 11 strikeouts while only allowing three hits. His 11 strikeouts were one shy of his collegiate career high of 12 which he threw while at UCLA.
“Thatcher executed all four of his pitches at a high level,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “It was one of those game you felt like you could sit in a rocking chair on defense when the pitcher is going like that. It was just a great performance by him – he had great velocity and movement on his fastball, and the downward break on his curveball was really special.”
Hitting out of the third position in the batting order, junior centerfielder Dylan Crews began LSU’s double-digit night at the plate with a line drive solo home run, his third of the season. Freshman catcher Brady Neal kicked off LSU’s six-run rally in the second inning when he pelted a solo home run over the right field wall, his first collegiate home run.
LSU’s most efficient batter of the night was freshman right fielder Paxton Kling. The Pennsylvania native went 3 for 3 at the plate and bombed his first collegiate home run over the left field bleachers in the fourth inning to make the score 8-0 at the time.
Junior left fielder Tre’ Morgan lined a triple, his second of the season, to left center and slid just in time to beat the throw to third base in the fifth inning. LSU scored their final runs of the game in the sixth inning when Kling doubled, and then junior infielder Ben Nippolt smacked a two-RBI double to center field.
Though it wasn’t quite the firestorm the last matchup was, LSU’s second game against Central Connecticut State produced the same level of succ…
“I thought overall that this was our best offensive game of the season,” Johnson said. “The way we executed, the way the lineup flowed; we did a lot of things well. We really moved the ball around the field and displayed professional hitting all the way through.”
Junior right-hander Blake Money relieved Hurd in the seventh inning and retired the side in order to close out the game. Money threw 13 pitches in one inning and had two strikeouts with zero hits allowed.
Butler was simply unable to string hits together and their pitching was not effective. The Bulldogs used five different pitchers in seven innings and every pitcher that threw double digit pitches allowed multiple hits.
The LSU baseball team will play their eighth game in 10 days when it hosts Lamar at 6:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
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