William Schmidt Earns First Career Win as Tigers Beat Nicholls 13-3

On to Texas

Fresh off of putting up 12 runs in Sunday’s win over Omaha, the LSU bats kept the momentum going as the Tigers (7-1) overwhelmed Nicholls 13-3 Monday night at Alex Box Stadium.

Prized true freshman William Schmidt made his first career start and while the outing wasn’t flawless, he still showed why he was so highly coveted coming out of Catholic.

Schmidt threw 60 pitches, 46 for strikes, and pitched into the fifth inning before being lifted for DJ Primeaux. The final line on Schmidt reads: 4.2 IP, five hits, two runs (one earned), and three strikeouts.

Schmidt ran into some trouble in the first inning when he gave up back to back singles to lead the game off. A fielding error by Tanner Reaves, starting once again at third base, loaded the bases, and Nicholls was able to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning by way of a sacrifice fly.

That 1-0 lead wouldn’t hold as the Tigers responded in the home half of the first inning with four runs, all coming with two outs. With two down, Jared Jones drew a walk to keep the inning going, Josh Pearson was hit by a pitch, and then Daniel Dickinson singled to left field to score Jones.

Ashton Larson walked to load the bases and Cade Arrambide drew a bases loaded walk to plate the Tigers’ second run of the night. Steven Milam put the exclamation mark on the inning with a single up the middle to give LSU a 4-1 lead.

Working with a 4-1 lead, Schmidt settled in after a rocky first inning. He only allowed two more hits on the night—a single in the second and a double in the fourth—and went three-up, three-down in the third. The double he allowed in the fourth ended up resulting in an out anyway thanks to a textbook relay by the Tiger defense.

Jared Jones pushed LSU’s lead to 5-1 in the second inning with a 377-foot bomb to left field for his second home run of 2025.

Later on in the fifth inning, Milam went deep for the first time this season with a three-run homer. It was part of a five-run fifth that doubled LSU’s total from five runs to 10.

LSU ended the game in the seventh by way of the run rule. Leading 10-3, the Tigers put up three runs to end the game early. With the bases loaded, no outs, and working off a full count Jared Jones crushed a ball to the warning track that ended up being dropped by Nicholls centerfielder Narvin Booker to give LSU a 12-3 lead, and the game ended two batters later when a wild pitch allowed Mic Paul to come home and score.

Up next we’ll finally get a better idea of what this 2025 LSU team is made of. Wednesday night they’ll be at Globe Life Field in Arlington to take on Dallas Baptist University, and then the Tigers will spend the weekend participating in the Frisco College Classic where they’ll play Kansas State on Friday, Nebraska on Saturday, and Sam Houston State on Sunday.