Tre’ Morgan’s three RBIs lift LSU baseball over Auburn in game one of series

On just the third pitch of the game, Tre’ Morgan blasted a home run over the right field wall giving LSU an early lead it never let go of.

The home run was Morgan’s fourth of the season, and he finished the game 3 for 5 with three RBIs.

After Morgan’s first-inning home run though, LSU’s bats went quiet for most of the game. Morgan, Gavin Dugas and Dylan Crews were the only LSU players to earn hits as the team finished with just five on the night.

LSU was able to generate baserunners throughout the game, drawing five walks, but only plated three runs.

Morgan went on to account for all three of LSU’s runs, tallying an RBI single in the seventh inning to extend LSU’s lead to 3-0. In what was otherwise a relatively slow offensive night for LSU, Morgan’s bat put the Tigers over the edge.

Despite LSU’s offense only putting three runs on the board, starting pitcher Paul Skenes had his most dominant performance of the season. He pitched 7.1 innings, striking out a career-high 15 batters without giving up a run.

Both his fastball and his slider were effective against Auburn, keeping hitters guessing throughout the game. Skenes now has 139 strikeouts on the season, a total that leads all of college baseball.

Fifteen strikeouts is the most in a game by any SEC pitcher this season. Despite giving up six hits, Skenes held the Auburn lineup in check, never letting those hits create runs for Auburn.

Skenes finished the game having thrown 110 pitches, seven below his season high of 117. Of those 110 pitches, 76 of them were strikes.

Ackenhausen relieved Skenes in the eighth inning, and picked up where Skenes left off. He retired the final two batters of the inning in just five pitches, on a groundout and a strikeout. 

Ackenhausen stayed in the game to start the ninth inning, before being replaced by Thatcher Hurd after giving up a leadoff single. Hurd finished the inning and earned the save, striking out the first two batters in the inning before inducing a groundout to shortstop for the final out of the game.

As a team, LSU’s pitching staff struck out 18 Auburn batters and only gave up seven hits. Even more impressive, LSU gave up just one walk throughout the game.

With that win, LSU has now won eight SEC games in a row, and holds sole possession of first place in the SEC. The win was LSU’s ninth shutout of the season and first shutout win over Auburn since 2017.

Game two between Auburn and LSU is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Saturday night. The game will be streaming live on SEC Network.