Box Score BATON ROUGE – Northwestern State enjoyed a fast start offensively Tuesday night.
A slow start pitching-wise put the Demons in a hole, however, before No. 8 LSU pulled away late for a 7-2 victory at Alex Box Stadium.
"I thought we swung the bats well early," fourth-year head coach
Lane Burroughs said. "We were having quality at-bats. Credit LSU for taking what we gave them. You want to hang on and hang on. We didn't have a whole lot of base runners after the (fourth) inning. Our at-bats were still fairly competitive."
After falling behind 3-0 in the first inning, Northwestern State (30-22) piled up eight hits through the first 3 2-3 innings against LSU starter John Valek III and reliever Jesse Stallings.
Outside of
Cort Brinson's two-run single in the third inning, the Demons managed only one hit with runners in scoring position – an infield single by
Matthew Alford in the fourth inning that put runners on first and third with one out.
Stallings (2-0) worked out of that jam with a strikeout and a groundout and set in motion a battle of the bullpens. He earned the victory with two scoreless innings, setting the tone for an LSU bullpen that allowed two hits across the final six innings.
After the Tigers (37-16) touched Demons starter
Austin Reich (2-2) for three runs on only one hit in the first inning, relievers
Tim Winders and
Devin Bear combined to shut out LSU for the next four innings.
Jeffrey Stovall added a scoreless sixth inning before the Tigers got an RBI double from Jake Fraley in the seventh inning to double their lead.
"The bottom line is you have to put the ball in the strike zone, and we didn't do that in the first inning," Burroughs said. "(Reich) has a million-dollar arm, and when you're throwing 95 miles an hour, if you put it across the plate, you're going to get outs. Our bullpen did a great job of keeping us in the ball game. You try to hold on, because you know they're going to have a big inning, and they did there in the eighth."
The Tigers pulled away with a three-run eighth inning, started by the lone Demons' error to produce the final score.
Bret Underwood led the Demons with a 2-for-4 performance, singling in his first two at-bats, while Brinson's two-run single gave him 121 career RBIs, giving him sole possession of sixth place on the NSU career list.
Antoine Duplantis went 3-for-5 with a triple and an RBI to lead the Tigers, who outhit the Demons 7-0 after the fourth inning.
The Demons return to action Thursday at Brown-Stroud Field when they host Abilene Christian. First pitch for the opening game of the season –ending, three-game Southland Conference series is set for 6:30 p.m.
No. 8 LSU 7, Northwestern State 2
NSU 002 000 000 – 2 8 1
LSU 300 000 13x – 7 10 0
W – Jesse Stallings (2-0). L –
Austin Reich (2-2). 2B – NSU,
Nick Heath;
Matt Valdez;
Spencer Goodwin . LSU, . 3B – LSU, Antoine Duplantis. Highlights: NSU,
Bret Underwood 2-4. LSU, Duplantis 3-5, 3B, RBI; Cole Freeman 2-3, RBI.
Records: Northwestern State 30-22; LSU 37-16.
