It was a rough night for LSU at J.C. Love Field in Ruston, Louisiana. Both teams entered the game with perfect 3-0 records, but a plethora of walks, bad luck, and errors proved too much for the Tigers to overcome against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in an 11-6 loss.
Riley Cooper (0-1) got the start on the mound for LSU. He allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits in two innings with no walks and one strikeout. The Tigers were down 5-0 in the top of the fourth inning when Brayden Jobert hit his third homer of the year to cut the lead to 5-2.
In the top of the fifth, LSU added another run on a Tre Morgan groundout, and in the sixth, Gavin Dugas hit an RBI single to cut the lead to 5-4 headed to the home half of the inning. At that point, it seemed like all of the momentum was favoring LSU and that they would be able to complete the comeback, but then everything went downhill fast.
Four down. Fifty-two to go. pic.twitter.com/JvQHCGy99v
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) February 24, 2022
If it could go wrong for LSU, it did in the bottom of the sixth inning. Louisiana Tech capitalized on three errors and a pair of walks in the bottom of the frame to take a 9-4 lead. They’d add on to that lead in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run homer to make it 11-4.
Gavin Dugas hit a two-run double in the top of the eighth to give LSU some hope, but that’s as close as the Tigers would come to a comeback as they fell 11-6. It was the first time in 25 years that LSU made the trip to Ruston. LSU entered the game with a record of 23-28 in true February road games in franchise history.
“They capitalized on our mistakes; good teams do that, and we’ll do that to teams at times this season,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said in a release. “You like to win these games when mistakes rear their head, but we didn’t, so we’ll work on controlling the ball and we’ll work on having better plate discipline.
“I was pleased with getting down 5-0 getting it back to 5-4; I think that’s a good sign, and I think the energy in the dugout was a positive. I felt like we were engaged in the game, but we’ve got to play baseball better.”
The Tigers will return to the Box this weekend for a four-game series involving both the Towson Tigers and the Southern Jaguars that includes a doubleheader on Sunday.
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