Bottom of the Order Steps Up for LSU Baseball as Tigers Clinch Opening Series With 7-4 Win Over Indiana
It wasn't as clean a performance as opening day but LSU retrieved some great help from the bottom of the lineup and enough from the bullpen to clinch the season opening series against Indiana.
Coach Paul Mainieri said after the game that he tells every one of his teams that seasons are defined by how they perform in close games. Well in the bottom of the eighth, LSU was in a 5-4 ball game and in need of some insurance runs.
The runs came from an unlikely source as eight hole hitter Alex Milazzo tattooed a ball in the left centerfield gap to give LSU the runs it needed to eventually escape with a 7-4 win.
That's how the game was defined most of the way, by some big hits from unlikely sources. Outside of Milazzo's three RBI in the game, nine hole hitter Hal Hughes came through with two RBI early in the game while sophomore Cade Beloso delivered an RBI on one of his three hits on the day.
"We've got some kids that I think are real winners," Mainieri said. "Alex Milazzo, he's just a scrapper and a fighter and will battle you until the end."
While it wasn't as crisp a debut performance as Marceaux would've liked, his ability to get of jams in the early innings told the story of his day. In the second and third innings, Indiana had opportunities to put a ton of pressure on the Tigers offense by putting two batters on in the second and loading the bases in the third.
Marceaux got out of both jams by retiring three straight batters in the second and two straight in the third. Indiana would get to the sophomore a bit in the fifth as a two-run homer from Cole Barr ricocheted off the scoreboard which was followed by a double to straight away centerfield.
That subsequent series would end Marceaux's day, finishing with three earned runs and two strikeouts on six hits with Trent Vietmeier first out of the bullpen.
Vietmeier was phenomenal in his near two innings of work, retiring five straight batters, but the story of the bullpen lied with a pitcher who missed most of the last two seasons with injuries to his shoulder.
Yes, the seventh inning belonged to Nick Storz. Storz missed last year with a torn lat and subsequent shoulder surgery to clean up scar tissue.
Storz took over in the seventh inning and struggled with his command but got out of the inning unscathed thanks to a double play ball with two runners on base. His fastball primarily hung in the 90-91 mph range as Storz would allow a hit and a walk in his limited action.
"I'm so happy for Nick," Marceaux said. "It's been two years for him. I've seen him in there with Cory [Couture] and all of the trainers working every single day to get back out here and I'm just so happy for that kid."
Closer Devin Fontenot had his fair share of troubles in the eighth inning but was able to escape with just one run coming across after at one point having runners on the corners with no outs.
"The role of the closer is to get the final out before the winning run comes across the plate and it wasn't pretty but he got the job done," Mainieri said. "It was a good win for us and now we'll see if we can finish it off."
LSU is back in action in about 30 minutes with first pitch of game three coming at 5:15.