Landon Marceaux's Career Day Fuels No. 12 LSU to 6-3 Win Over Eastern Kentucky to Even Series
LSU pitcher Cole Henry said the Tigers would be in good hands the rest of the weekend after Friday's shutout loss but he didn't hint to the performance that his fellow sophomore Landon Marceaux would put on.
LSU rode a two-run homerun from Daniel Cabrera in the first and a phenomenal eight inning shutout performance from Marceaux to even the series with Eastern Kentucky with a 6-3 win.
Marceaux was the hero of the day for the Tigers as the sophomore went eight innings of near perfect baseball. Through six innings, Marceaux sat at just 57 pitches on the day with no runs allowed and four strikeouts.
He was forcing groundout after groundout to third baseman Zack Mathis as the Colonels batters could never get a good read on his breaking ball. Marceaux's outing continued through the eighth inning, a new career-high for him as he had never gone that deep in any of his previous starts as a Tiger.
"What a tremendous performance, he was an animal out there," Mainieri said. "He's such a different pitcher because he's developed such an outstanding breaking ball that he was able to go to whenever he needed it and he was still throwing 91 mph."
Marceaux said after the game he switched from throwing a traditional 12-6 curveball to a slider this year and it's made a world of difference in the early going.
"Last year I had a bigger breaking ball that you could kind of see out of the hand a little bit and wasn't able to put guys away with it," Marceaux said. "The slider is a little bit harder, a little sharper and I can throw it for a strike so it feels good."
Marceaux's only real trouble came in the seventh as a single and double from Eastern Kentucky put runners at second and third with just one out.
However, it was just the sophomore's day as he bounced back by forcing a popout to Cade Beloso at first and a strikeout that got the Alex Box faithful to their feet. Marceaux, on the other hand, fist-pumped his way to the dugout after the strikeout. In total, Marceaux would throw 80 pitches, 61 of which went for strikes, surrender no runs and strike out six.
"I'm so happy for that kid, he works incredibly hard," Beloso said. "He's a great pitcher and that's absolutely what he's capable of doing. Everybody in this program loves Landon and I think that performance tonight is the real Landon Marceaux."
Aaron George came in for the cleanup ninth inning but struggled with his command as Eastern Kentucky hung three runs on the senior before he could record a single out. With runners on second and third and no outs, Mainieri turned to Devin Fontenot to close the game out.
Fontenot did his job, retiring three straight Eastern Kentucky batters with a pair of strikeouts to seal the deal.
Offensively it was another quiet day at the plate for most of the day as a Cabrera two-run homer in the opening inning were the only runs LSU could muster through seven innings. Mathis had a nice day at the plate, going 2-for-3 but the other LSU batters went a combined 4-for-26.
LSU would tack on four runs in the eighth, all with two outs registered as the Tigers were able to load the bases thanks to three walks. Beloso would cap off the inning with a double that brought home three of the four runs to give LSU the 6-0 lead.
"We didn't do a good job of adding on to the lead after the fast start," Beloso said. "We've got to get it going a bit more especially with Landon Marceaux out there and taking control of the game. It was good to do that in the eighth, provide some more run support. Looking back on it that would've been a tie game going into the bottom of the ninth."
The stellar defense from the freshman catcher Alex Milazzo continued behind the plate. His quick pop time led to LSU pickoffs in the second and sixth innings, ending the innings both times.
LSU will be back in action Sunday morning to try and clinch the series with a rubber match game starting at 11 a.m.