PRESS RELEASE
BATON ROUGE – The LSU baseball team picked up all of its runs with two outs Tuesday night, en route to a 9-5 victory over Northwestern State in the final regular season game at Alex Box Stadium Field, Skip Bertman Field in 2018.
LSU advances to 32-21 on the season while Northwestern State falls to 31-21.
The Tigers will travel to Auburn this weekend for its final SEC series of the year.
In Matthew Beck’s first start of the season and just the third of his career, the sophomore came out pounding the strike zone. He struck out five of the first seven Northwestern State hitters he faced. Beck finished with a career-high, six strikeouts over three innings of work as he earned the win. Caleb Gilbert replaced Beck to begin the fourth inning and he went two scoreless innings. Six other relievers combined to throw the final four innings including Austin Bain, who picked up the save.
Northwestern State used a plethora of pitchers as eight saw action on the mound. Tyler Pigott got the start, and despite working just one inning, he was credited with the loss after giving up two runs on four hits and walking one.
The Tigers got the offense rolling early in the first with a couple of two-out RBI hits. After designated hitter Beau Jordan and right fielder Antoine Duplantis got back-to-back singles to start the game, centerfielder Zach Watson and catcher Nick Coomes each delivered with a RBI as LSU took a 2-0 lead in the first.
After first baseman Austin Bain drove shortstop Hal Hughes home with a two-out base knock in the second, left fielder Daniel Cabrera launched his eighth home run of the season to give LSU a 5-0 lead.
For the third straight inning, the Tigers had runners on with two outs and for the third straight inning, the Tigers capitalized on that opportunity. Duplantis drove a single to center, allowing Hughes to score from second. With Beau Jordan running towards third, Northwestern State first baseman Peyton Davis overthrew third base, allowing Jordan to come home and score. In the following at-bat, Bain drove Duplantis home as LSU took an 8-0 lead.
After picking up its first run in the seventh inning, Northwestern State made it interesting as it added four runs in the eighth to make it an 8-5 game. Bain then came in to pitch for the Tigers, and escaped the inning. The LSU senior then scored on a wild pitch in the bottom half of the inning and pitched the final three outs to earn the save.