LSU

Aggies avoid sweep at LSU, Tigers fall 6-2

Chad Washington

BATON ROUGE – After winning two big games to take the series, the LSU baseball team could not find the one big push to change the momentum of the game and lost to Texas A&M 6-2 on Saturday at Alex Box Stadium.

The No. 2 Aggies avoided the sweep over the No. 1 Tigers as LSU got 11 hits in the game, but could not bring the runners home like it did in the first two games of the series.

The Tigers got hits early in the game, putting up five in the first two innings. But no runs were able to score in those innings as Texas A&M was able to throw out two LSU runners at the plate. Aggie left fielder Logan Taylor was able to throw out Alex Bregman in a close play in the first inning, then Chris Chinea was gunned down at home on a relay throw from left field.

“Typically you score on those type of plays, but we were just a step slow today,” LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said. “I don’t know because if we’re tired or after playing a couple of emotional night games going into today, but we got beat by a good team.”

LSU (37-7, 14-6 SEC) was able to tag starting pitcher Kyle Simonds with eight hits in his five innings, but only managed to get two runs off of him in the fourth inning. Stevenson scored on an RBI single by Chris Sciambra and then Sciambra came home on an error by center fielder J.B. Moss.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M (37-7, 13-7) got to Tiger starter Austin Bain in the third inning, scoring four unearned runs in the frame. An error by Chinea led to an RBI single by Taylor that scored Blake Allemand, then Hunter Melton singled home Mitchell Nau, and Ronnie Gideon brought home Taylor on an RBI single.

In the sixth inning, Ryne Birk hit a solo home run to right field off of Bain to increase the Aggie lead to three. A&M added a run in the ninth as Allemand tripled in Moss off of LSU reliever Jake Godfrey.

Bain gave up only one earned run in his 5 2-3 innings pitched to pick up the loss, while Jake Godfrey, Zac Person and Jesse Stallings each had good innings and kept the game close until the ninth inning.

“I’m so proud of the way Austin pitched today and the way Jake Godfrey pitched,” Mainieri said. “We pitched well enough to win today, and we outhit them. We must have had a dozen hard-hit balls where they made a diving play or hit right at them.”

The game was delayed three hours and 15 minutes due to rains that soaked the area.

Despite Saturday’s loss, the Tigers did take two games in a regional-type atmosphere, and that should give them added confidence down the stretch of the regular season.

“It was a great, positive weekend and we’re rolling,” Chinea said.

LSU will host Alcorn State on Tuesday night before heading to Mississippi State for a series in Starkville beginning on Thursday.