[autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] got the start on the mound as LSU played its first game of the 2023 SEC Baseball Tournament against South Carolina. These two teams faced off in Columbia earlier this season and split the series 1-1, but the Tigers took the de facto rubber match with a 10-3 win to advance into the winners’ bracket.
[autotag]Brayden Jobert[/autotag] drew first blood in the bottom of the second inning when he hit a two-run homer into the trees in right field.
GOOOOOOD MOOORNING, TIGER FANS!@braydenjobert | SECN pic.twitter.com/KL29aoT4ys
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) May 24, 2023
South Carolina got one of those runs back in the top of the fifth inning via a solo homer to cut the lead to 2-1. LSU got that run back plus a few more in the bottom of the fifth with two bases-loaded walks and two sacrifice flys extending the lead to 6-1.
Hurd ran into some issues in the top of the sixth inning as he loaded the bases and then walked a run in. [autotag]Sam Dutton[/autotag] then came into pitch.
Hurd had a good day, overall. He pitched 5.1 innings and gave up three runs on four hits, four strikeouts, and two walks. Dutton walked in the first batter he faced and that scored another run for Carolina as they cut the lead to 6-3. Dutton was then pulled for [autotag]Nate Ackenhausen[/autotag].
Ackenhausen retired the next two batters to get LSU out of the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, [autotag]Tre Morgan[/autotag] and [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag] both hit RBI singles to increase the lead to 8-3. In the bottom of the seventh, Crews and [autotag]Tommy White[/autotag], both hit RBI singles to give LSU a 10-3 lead heading into the eighth inning.
Ackenhausen stayed in to pitch the ninth inning as he closed out the Gamecocks, and LSU won its first game in the conference tournament 10-3. LSU advances to play the winner of the Arkansas/Texas A&M game on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. CT.
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