LSU Baseball Takes Care of Business With 7-0 Win Over Grambling State
For years, LSU has always had those two or three midweek games where the team has had off nights and battled to scrape together runs. That hasn't been the case in 2021 as the Tigers jumped out early on visiting Grambling State to win in convincing 7-0 fashion.
In their last four midweek outings, the Tigers have allowed a total of two runs.
It didn't take long for the LSU hitters to figure out the starting pitching of Antoine Valerio as the Tigers had batted around the order twice by the third inning and all but two starters had recorded a hit. As LSU jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, a string of five consecutive hits in the third inning ultimately resulted in four runs coming across to give the pitchers a comfortable advantage to play with.
Jordan Thompson, who had been a little hot and cold with the bat, was able to piece together a 2-for-4 afternoon that included a home run while Tre Morgan, Dylan Crews and Brody Drost all picked up multiple hits in the win.
"It felt really good and we just tried to stick to our hitting approach, not try to do too much," Morgan said. "We really just had to adjust [to the difference in pitch speed] after coming off the weekend but once we saw it once around the order but once we adjusted our bats caught life."
On the mound, Ma'Khail Hilliard drew his first start of the season and was in complete control for his three innings on the mound. He retired eight of the nine batters he faced, striking out five of them as his command of that patented curveball of his fooled multiple Grambling batters.
As LSU continues to use trial and error for its third weekend starter role, the freshmen names have been brought up but Hilliard has not. Will Hellmers looked great in his first SEC start but Hilliard went a whole season facing SEC pitching as a freshman and knows what it takes to have success.
"As a freshman he did a really good job for us as a starting pitcher," Paul Mainieri said. "His consistency has been up and down this year but there's been times where he's looked really sharp. We're gonna need Ma'Khail down the stretch.
"It would take its course and I'd have to get used to being a starter again but these midweek games definitely help out a lot," Hilliard said. "The mindset changes knowing that you're starting."
He certainly could be an option if LSU continues to struggle with that role as conference play starts to wind down. LSU elected to throw a handful of freshmen after the veteran Hilliards successful outing. Ty Floyd, Michael Fowler, Theo Millas, Alex Brady and Trent Vietmeier all threw scoreless innings with the lead firm in hand. In total, LSU pitching allowed a total of three hits and struck out 12 batters.
LSU will now prepare for one of its biggest SEC series to date with No. 1 Arkansas set to travel for a weekend series starting Friday evening.
Photo courtesy of LSUsports.