The No. 1 team in America according to every poll, the LSU Tigers, suffered their first loss of the year on Saturday against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the [autotag]Round Rock Classic[/autotag].
Friday night, the Hawkeyes lost to Sam Houston State 6-0, so they came into Saturday’s game extra motivated. [autotag]Riley Cooper[/autotag] got the start on the mound for the Tigers today and Iowa got to him early, scoring three runs in the first inning. The Hawkeyes plated two more runs on Cooper before they chased him from the mound and [autotag]Samuel Dutton[/autotag] got to be the victim of their punishment.
Cooper’s final stat line was three innings pitched while giving up 7 hits and 5 runs with five strikeouts and one walk. Dutton was pulled after he pitched one inning and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits. Just like that it was 7-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning.
LSU finally scored a couple of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag] hit a two-RBI single after the Tigers loaded the bases on walks. LSU cut the lead to 7-2 and it looked like they might claw back into the game, but Iowa had other plans.
End 4 | THE TIGERS ARE ON THE BOARD
Dylan hits a 2-RBI single down the LF line to bring Brady and Ben home
IOWA – 7
LSU – 2 pic.twitter.com/jKWgrLJnMR— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) February 25, 2023
In the top of the eighth inning, Iowa scored 4 runs after an RBI single and a three-run homer to make the score 11-2. The game felt out of hand at that point, but LSU would not give up. Another RBI single from Crews scored [autotag]Gavin Guidry[/autotag] and a [autotag]Brady Jones[/autotag] sacrifice fly scored [autotag]Gavin Dugas[/autotag] to cut the lead to 11-4 after eight innings.
In the top of the ninth, Iowa scored their final run of the game with a solo homer to right field to make it 12-4 Hawkeyes. The Tigers were retired in order in the bottom of the inning.
With the loss, LSU drops to 5-1 on the season. They will finish the Round Rock Classic on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Sam Houston State.
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