Tag: Ma’Khail Hilliard

Jacob Berry leads LSU baseball past Missouri in Game 1

It was a Berry good night for the Tigers as they took a 5-3 win over Missouri.

[autotag]Jacob Berry[/autotag] is one of the top MLB prospects in the country, and tonight, he showed why that is the case in LSU’s 5-3 win over Missouri.

In his first two at-bats of the evening, Berry hit two homers to keep the Tigers tied with Missouri at 2-2. This night was not all about Berry, though.

[autotag]Ma’Khail Hilliard[/autotag] had possibly his best start of the season as he pitched seven full innings allowing seven hits and only two runs with zero walks and five strikeouts as coach Jay Johnson’s team took the lead in the series on Thursday night.

In the bottom of the first inning, as previously mentioned, Berry hit a solo shot to put the Tigers up 1-0.

Missouri scored a run in the second and the third inning to take a 2-1 lead before Berry hit another solo home run to tie the game at 2-2.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, [autotag]Cade Doughty[/autotag] hit an RBI double down the left-field line to give LSU a 3-2 lead. That was followed by a two-RBI single by [autotag]Tre Morgan[/autotag] to extend the lead to 5-2 LSU after five innings.

In the top of the eighth inning, Missouri got a run back to cut the lead to 5-3, but that is as close as they would get as the LSU bullpen shut them down and secured the victory for the good guys.

With the win, LSU moves to 25-12 (8-8 SEC) on the season. Game 2 against Missouri will be Friday night at 6:30 p.m. CT from The Box.

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LSU baseball drops Game 1 against Arkansas

The Tigers couldn’t pull off a win on the road in the series opener against the Razorbacks.

LSU strolled into Fayetteville, Arkansas, to face the No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks coming off of a 4-0 week last week, and the question everyone had on their minds was whether the Tigers could keep it rolling.

[autotag]Ma’Khail Hilliard[/autotag] got the start on the mound for LSU in game one and he had another quality start as he worked five full innings allowing two runs, four walks and five strikeouts. However, that wasn’t enough to get a win as Arkansas took Game 1 with a 5-4 win.

The Razorbacks drew first blood in the bottom of the first when they scored an unearned run after an LSU error to make the game 1-0. In the bottom of the third inning, Hilliard walked a hitter with bases loaded to make it 2-0 Arkansas.

LSU entered the sixth inning with zero hits on the evening, but they proceeded to quickly flip the script as the Tigers scored three runs thanks to a trio of singles by [autotag]Josh Berry[/autotag], [autotag]Cade Doughty[/autotag], and [autotag]Josh Pearson[/autotag] to make it 3-2 LSU after six innings.

Arkansas didn’t waste much time mounting a comeback as it scored three runs of its own in the bottom of the seventh inning to reclaim the lead 5-3 headed to the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers got one of those runs back via a Berry single to make it 5-4 headed to the bottom of the eighth.

In the top of the ninth inning, Stevenson got a single, but that was as close as LSU would come to a comeback as they lost game one 5-4. With the loss, LSU drops to 23-10 (7-6 SEC) on the year. Game 2 will be on Friday night at 6 p.m. CT.

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LSU’s baseball game against Lamar postponed

No makeup date has currently been set for the game against the Cardinals.

Due to the threat of inclement weather, Tuesday night’s baseball game against the Lamar Cardinals has been canceled.

LSU was set to play the Cardinals at The Box as a tune-up game for this weekend’s series against No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was a good week for the Tigers, who went 4-0 with a weekend sweep over Mississippi State, their first sweep in a conference series since 2019.

This is the third midweek game that has been postponed for LSU this season. The prior two were rescheduled for the following day, but a makeup date for this one hasn’t been announced.

The Tigers will likely return to the field this weekend in what will be a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday series in Fayetteville against the Razorbacks. [autotag]Ma’Khail Hilliard[/autotag] is the likely starter for Game 1, [autotag]Blake Money[/autotag] is likely to start Game 2, and TBA on the Game 3 starter.

Since coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] reconfigured the pitching rotation, [autotag]Samuel Dutton[/autotag] has seen the bulk of the Game 3 starts.

LSU is currently 23-9 (7-5 SEC) on the year. For all updates on LSU baseball and full game recaps, stay tuned to LSU Wire.

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LSU bats lead rally in Game 1 win over Mississippi State

LSU started its road series on a high note.

LSU entered Friday’s Game 1 against Mississippi State looking to get back on the right track in SEC play after dropping the series to Auburn last week.

Usually, [autotag]Blake Money[/autotag] gets the start on Friday nights, but things have changed, as it was a “Mike Night.” [autotag]Ma’Khail Hilliard[/autotag] got the start on the mound, and, just like he has been the past couple of weeks, he had another incredible start.

His performance and some timely offense led the Tigers to a 5-2 win over the Bulldogs to get a head start in the series.

Hilliard pitched six full innings only allowing two runs with five strikeouts. In the top of the fourth inning, LSU struck first as [autotag]Cade Doughty[/autotag] scored on a [autotag]Josh Pearson[/autotag] sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Bulldogs took the lead as they scored on a two-RBI single to take their first lead of the game 2-1. Going into the top of the ninth inning, LSU only had three hits and left seven runners on base, but all they needed was one run to tie the game and two to take the lead.

[autotag]Josh Thompson[/autotag] struck out looking for out No. 1, Pearson flew out for out No. 2, then [autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag] walked to give the Tigers a baserunner. [autotag]Josh Stevenson[/autotag] then came in to pinch-hit and he was hit by a pitch.

Tigers had runners on first and second with two outs as Tre Morgan stepped into the batter’s box. A wild pitch then advanced both runners to second and third. Tre Morgan, facing a 1-1 count with runners on second and third laced a fastball up the middle to score Stevenson and Travinski as the Tigers took a 3-2 lead.

[autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag] was greeted by a new pitcher and he hit a “Crews” missile to expand the LSU lead to 5-2.

[autotag]Paul Gervase[/autotag] stepped onto the mound to try and close the game in the bottom of the ninth. He struck the first guy out. The second batter grounded out to the first baseman. The last batter struck out swinging as LSU completed the victory. Game 2 will be tomorrow at 2 p.m. CT.

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LSU evens the series with Auburn with a big win in Game 2

LSU dominated on Friday night to set up a decisive Game 3 at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday.

LSU came into Friday night’s Game 2 looking to rebound after Thursday’s tough one-run loss to Auburn. A big offensive performance allowed the right Tigers to even up the series heading into Sunday’s rubber match.

If [autotag]Ma’Khail Hilliard[/autotag] keeps pitching like he has been lately, “Mike Day” will become a Baton Rouge holiday. The fifth-year senior came out and absolutely shoved Friday as he pitched 5.1 innings giving up four hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts.

That is a very welcome sight for all Tiger fans and especially coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag]. Offensively, things started just as they did last night with a home run in the bottom of the first inning, this time by [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag].

 

In the bottom of the fifth, [autotag]Cade Doughty[/autotag] added to the lead with an RBI double that scored [autotag]Hayden Travinski[/autotag].

That was followed by an RBI single from Crews to plate Doughty and make it 3-0 LSU after five full innings.

Auburn finally got on the board in the top of the seventh as they scored two runs to cut the lead to 3-2. LSU gained some breathing room again in the bottom of the seventh thanks to [autotag]Jacob Berry[/autotag], [autotag]Brayden Jobert[/autotag], Crews, [autotag]Jordan Thompson[/autotag] and [autotag]Gavin Dugas[/autotag] to make it 8-2 LSU.

In the bottom of the eighth, Travinski scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-2 as heading into the final inning. [autotag]Trent Vietmeier[/autotag] came in to pitch the top of the ninth and he was able to retire Auburn without allowing a run.

Saturday’s decisive Game 3 is scheduled for tomorrow at 1 p.m. CT.

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Tigers going ‘back to the drawing board’ after rough weekend on the mound

LSU coach Jay Johnson said the Tigers are reevaluating pitching ahead of this weekend’s series at Florida.

Last weekend, coach Jay Johnson and the LSU Tigers dropped their first conference series of the season to Texas A&M. One of the major reasons was starting pitching.

Going into the weekend series, only Johnson knew the status of the Tigers’ ace Blake Money after he suffered an injury in the Tulane game. Ty Floyd got the start on the mound for the Friday night game, instead.

A key goal for any starting pitcher is to try and get a “quality start” every time you pitch. Per MLB.com, “a starting pitcher records a quality start when he pitches at least six innings and allows three earned runs or fewer. A starting pitcher has two jobs: to prevent runs and get outs. The quality start statistic helps to quantify which pitchers did a “quality” job in those two departments.”

Out of the three conference games last week, LSU recorded zero quality starts. Floyd pitched for only two innings and gave up two runs, Money pitched 3 1/3 innings and gave up four runs, and Hilliard pitched four innings and gave up five runs.

That is a total of 11 earned runs in only 9 1/3 innings, good for an ERA of 10.88.

That is an abhorrent number for any pitching staff. Those numbers have led coach Johnson to make some changes. The Tigers take on Louisiana Tech on Wednesday before traveling to Florida to take on the No. 8 Gators in Gainesville this weekend.

Something has to give for this pitching staff. According to Johnson, the Tigers are going to go “back to the drawing board” as far as the starting rotation is concerned and re-evaluate every pitcher on the roster to see who can get some quality starts and win some games.

The Tigers currently sit at 15-5 and they are ranked the No. 18 team in the country, but coach Johnson knows this team is capable of playing much better than it is right now.

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