WE’RE BACK
Our long national nightmare is over: LSU won a conference series.
After dropping their first five SEC weekends, the Tigers (25-16, 5-13) went on the road to CoMo and took two out of three against Missouri.
LSU got off to a good start as the Tigers run-ruled the Other Tigers 12-1 on Friday. Gage Jump pitched the best game of his collegiate career as he went all seven innings and struck out 14. Jump’s efforts were recognized as the SEC’s pitcher of the week.
“I was a great performance by Gage and a great win for our team,” Jay Johnson said after Friday’s game. “Gage controlled the tempo of the game, and our hitters took great at-bats. We produced a lot of line drives with runners in scoring position, and we controlled the game from the first pitch to the last.”
LSU wouldn’t be nearly as fortunate on Saturday, as the Tigers dropped game two of the series 8-7. LSU nearly dug themselves out of a 7-1 deficit. LSU was able to score two in the eighth and three in the ninth, but Missouri was able to get a crucial insurance run back in the home half of the eighth that ultimately proved to be the difference.
LSU is one of the baseball institutions in all of collegiate athletics. We don’t update The Intimidator for NCAA appearances or Omaha berths; that’s reserved for national championships. That said…this LSU team hasn’t won a Sunday all conference play up until this weekend and that’s a big deal. Baby steps.
LSU won Sunday’s game 6-2 to claim its first weekend series of 2024. Griffin Herring was nails coming out of the bullpen once again. The sophomore lefty pitched five scoreless innings and was credited with the win. Herring only gave up one hit, walked one, and struck out eight.
“I’m proud of our team,” Johnson said. “We didn’t get off to a great start, but they stayed with it and played with great competitive character. Griffin’s performance on the back end of the game was outstanding. He’s a team-first player, and in four of our five SEC wins, he did exactly what he did today.”
Paxton Kling tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning thanks to a clutch two-out double; Michael Braswell gave LSU a 3-2 lead in the sixth thanks to a bases loaded walk; and freshman outfielder Ashton Larson went deep for the third time this season to push LSU’s lead to 4-2 in the seventh.
Braswell would pick up a second RBI in the eighth inning, and a throwing error by Mizzou in the ninth gave LSU the 6-2 advantage.
The only way to get out of a hole is to stop digging and that’s what LSU did this weekend. They are by no means out of the woods yet, but winning a weekend is massive for this team. Next up they have a home series against Auburn, the only team with a worse conference record than LSU.