BATON ROUGE, La.?Brad Hawpe went 4-for-4 with 4 RBIs to pace the 2000 LSU Tigers to a 10-5 victory in the LSU Alumni game Thursday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers officially open the regular season on Saturday, February 12 with a day-night doubleheader against Virginia at 2 and 7 p.m. (CST).
Hawpe, a junior from Fort Worth who missed two months last season with a broken bone in his left hand, got this year?s Tigers on the board in the second with a solo home run to the opposite field in left. He followed with a one-out single in the fourth before back-to-back doubles in the fifth and sixth drove in three more runs.
The alumni team, which featured many current professional players and several past LSU All-Americans, got out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on a two-run homer by Trey McClure (1996-99) off of Brian Tallet.
Following Hawpe?s home run that cut the margin to 2-1 after two, the alumni team got another run on Mike Neal?s (1991-93) RBI double that scored Jason Williams (1993-96).
Cedrick Harris? triple deep in the left-center field gap scored Hawpe in the bottom of the fourth before this year?s Tigers broke it open with a five-run fifth.
Kevin Shipp (1996-97) hit Jeremy Witten with a pitch to open the inning, and after Witten stole second, David Raymer brought home the tying run with an RBI single. Ryan Theriot singled and Mike Fontenot walked to load the bases, only to have Brad Cresse line into a double play at first. But Hawpe kept the inning going with his two-run double off the center field fence, followed by Blair Barbier?s two-run homer.
The 2000 Tigers extended the lead to 9-3 in the bottom of the sixth with the help of Hawpe?s RBI double before the Alumni got to within 9-5 in the seventh on an RBI double by Brandon Larson (1997). The final run for the 2000 Tigers scored on an error by Larson that plated pinch-runner Billy McBride.
Alumni? 021 000 200– 5 10 1
LSU???? 010 152 01x– 10 13 1
Patrick Coogan, Doug Thompson (2), Dan Guillory (4), Kevin Shipp (5), Chris Demouy (6), Rick Greene (7), Barry Manuel (8) and Trey McClure, Clint Earnhart; Brian Tallet, Bo Pettit (5), Weylin Guidry and Brad Cresse, Ryan Jorgensen (7). 2B: Alumni?Mike Neal, Brandon Larson, Eddy Furniss; LSU?Brad Hawpe 2, Jamin Garidel 3B: LSU?Cedrick Harris. HR: Alumni–Trey McClure, Mike Koerner; LSU?Hawpe, Blair Barbier.
W?Pettit.
L?Shipp.
T?2:48
A?2,704.