Much to the surprise of many, [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] got the start on the mound for Game 1 of the Baton Rouge Regional against 19-40 Tulane.
We’ll see if that pays off in the long run for coach Jay Johnson and the Tigers, but it certainly did on Friday as they opened their NCAA tournament run with a 7-2 win to advance to the winners’ bracket.
LSU drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning when [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag] scored on a [autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag] RBI double to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Tigers tacked on two more runs when [autotag]Brayden Jobert[/autotag] scored on an RBI double and [autotag]Gavin Dugas[/autotag] scored on an RBI groundout by [autotag]Josh Pearson[/autotag] to make it 3-0.
In the bottom of the third inning, Travinski scored on an RBI groundout by Jobert to give LSU a 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, LSU scored two runs off of two sacrifice flyouts to score [autotag]Cade Beloso[/autotag] and Travinski to make it 6-0 Tigers after 5 innings.
In the top of the seventh inning, Tulane finally got on the board with a two-run homer off of Skenes to cut the lead to 6-2.
LSU loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth inning and Travinski walked to score another run to make the score 7-2 LSU as we headed to the ninth inning.
Skenes stayed on the mound to start the ninth inning as he looked to pitch his first complete game. Skenes retired the hitters 1-2-3 as he pitched the first nine-inning complete game of his career. His final stat line was nine innings pitched as he allowed two runs on seven hits, zero walks and 12 strikeouts.
LSU moves on to the winners’ bracket to face the victor of Friday night’s matchup between Oregon State/Sam Houston State on Saturday.
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