LSU Powers Past Towson With Home Run Filled 11-1 Win
LSU's power hitting was in full effect on Sunday as the Tigers crushed three home runs to knock off Towson 11-1.
Once again it took the offense a few innings to get going, a common trend early in the season for this team. After leaving eight runners on base halfway through Saturday's eventual win over Southern, the Tigers would leave seven on base four innings into their second matchup with Towson.
Mixed into that fourth inning however, LSU was able to put together a little two man offense with Jordan Thompson producing a single and designated hitter Brayden Jobert knocking his team leading fourth home run of the season to take a 2-1 lead. Jobert has been one of the early surprises of the season and has arguably been the Tigers best bat at producing runs with 13 RBI.
Thompson put together his best outing of the young season, going 2-for-4 at the plate, Jobert went 3-for-4 while Jacob Berry would also break out of a mini slump by blasting his third home run of the season in the fifth.
LSU put together three home runs on the afternoon, with Dylan Crews adding his second of the weekend to push the lead to 6-1. The Tigers offense continues to put the ball in play and give itself chances in every inning at the plate, keeping the strikeouts to just one in 31 at bats.
"It's a really good sign because we've had a couple of things not go our way," Jay Johnson said. "To be able to weather the storm and keep playing, 27 outs is a lot to get against these guys."
On the mound, starting pitcher Ty Floyd gave the Tigers five solid innings, allowing just one run off a solo homer in the second inning. The talent has never been a question with Floyd, who continuously punches 93 mph on the radar gun but has struggled with command in the past.
While he fired five strikeouts in the one hit effort, he also did issue three walks and struggled with his off speed command at times. Of his 78 total pitches, 45 were strikes meaning 33 were outside the strike zone. This is an area Floyd looked much improved in a week ago so until we see some more outings out of him it's hard to predict if this is an outlier or an issue he'll have to work on moving forward.
Devin Fontenot entered the game in the sixth for Floyd and got an extended look after pitching just one inning in the previous six games. Despite a couple of errors from the field, Fontenot was able to get through three clean innings on the mound with four strikeouts while Samuel Dutton closed out the ninth.
"It's unreal," Floyd said of the depth of the staff. "Sammy Dutton was one of the better pitchers this fall and he's a really talented pitcher. It says a lot about our pitching staff that this is his first game pitching. We have a lot of talent. "
LSU will be back in action at 5 p.m. to take on Southern for the final game of the weekend.
(Photo courtesy of LSUsports)