LSU baseball’s game against Stony Brook on Friday started to give the crowd flashbacks to 2012, when that Stony Brook team beat the Tigers in the third game of the NCAA Super Regionals.
This season, in its first meeting of the weekend series, LSU fell to the Seawolves, 5-2.
LSU obviously didn’t have its season on the line, like the last roster that lost to Stony Brook did, but for Tiger fans, it was just as hard to watch.
The first few innings of this game mirrored the ones from 12 years ago; Stony Brook struck first.
Veteran Tiger Thatcher Hurd earned the start on the bump, and it didn’t take long for the Stony Brook roster to find its groove.
In the top of the second inning, shortstop Matt Miceli singled to center field. It was an RBI that drove in left fielder Matt Brown-Eiring. Not long after, right fielder Robert Taylor smashed a double over to right field, just over the head of LSU’s Josh Pearson. The missed play gave Stony Brook a two-run lead.
Hurd ultimately gave up three runs, the third of which he walked in.
Over his 4.1 innings, Hurd allowed six hits. He struck out eight and walked four.
“I think it’s something to build off of,” head coach Jay Johnson said in regards to Hurd’s performance. “He struck out a lot of guys today. I think limiting the damage in the second inning was a real positive, and then we left him in to get out of the mess there, and he did.”
Griffin Herring relieved Hurd on the mound. He went 2.2 innings and allowed two runs on two hits. He walked on and struck out one.
Sam Dutton was the closer against Stony Brook. He pitched the final two innings and allowed only two hits. Dutton struck out three.
Despite the somewhat consistent performance of the bullpen, LSU’s achilles’ heel came from plate performances.
“That was clearly the best pitcher we’ve seen through six games,” Johnson said. “Like, not even close.”
The Tigers totaled six hits on the game, while Stony Brook collected 10.
The Seawolves’ starting pitcher was credited with the win.
Eddie Smink pitched five innings. He allowed two runs on three hits. The sophomore walked three and struck out seven. Almost ⅔ of his pitch count were noted as strikes.
In the second inning, LSU’s bats seemed to garner some momentum. Center fielder Paxton Kling reached first on a fielding error. That error was enough to score left fielder Mac Bingham and right fielder Josh Pearson.
The momentum died just as quickly as it was fired up, though. Those two runs were ultimately LSU’s only scores on the night.
The Tigers tallied nine strikeouts against the two Stony Brook arms. They left 8 batters on a bag throughout the nine innings.
Ultimately, the Seawolves’ defense was able to hold off a subpar Tiger offense.
“He was mixing speeds well, he was locating,” Kling said on Smink. “It’s someone we’re going to have to hit so we’re going to work on that and we’re going to learn from it today and get better.”
LSU will face the Seawolves again this weekend, but first, they will play its second game against Northern Illinois. That game is set to kick off on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 1:00 p.m. CT.
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