BATON ROUGE — LSU put at least one run on the board in the first seven innings and Hunter Gomez, Ben Saxon and Weylin Guidry combined for a shutout as the Tigers improved to 4-0 on the season with an 11-0 win over Southeastern Louisiana Tuesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
Brad Cresse hit his second home run of this young season and drove in five runs on 2-of-3 hitting including a sacrifice fly to lead the Tigers offensively.
Gomez, starting the third game of his two-year career, pitched six innings and gave up only four hits while striking out eight to pick up his first win of the season.
Saxon pitched the seventh and eighth innings for the Tigers, striking out two and allowing one hit. Weylin Guidry finished the game off in the ninth without allowing a hit.
The Tigers opened up the bottom of the first by generating a run off of three walks by starting pitcher Steve Sawyer. After Jeremy Witten, Mike Fontenot and Brad Hawpe walked, Cresse hit a sacrifice fly to shallow left field to score Witten.
After starting pitcher Hunter Gomez struck out the side in the top of the second, the Tigers got back on the scoreboard again in the bottom of the inning. First baseman Jeff Lipari opened the frame with a Texas Leaguer to center. After Cedrick Harris popped out to the second baseman, Wally Pontiff and Ryan Theriot hit back-to-back doubles to right field to make the score 3-0 through two complete.
Yet another Tigers outfielder got a scare tonight, as Witten collided with SLU first baseman Scott Usry at first base. Witten grounded a ball to third baseman Jared Owen who’s throw to first went high. When Usry jumped to field the throw, he and Witten collided. Witten was attended to by the LSU training staff and stayed in the game. An error was charged to Owen before Witten was caught stealing second.
This past weekend against Virginia, Cedrick Harris and David Raymer, both centerfielders, were injured trying to make defensive plays. After running into the centerfield wall Sunday, Raymer did not play against the Lions but is expected to play against Arizona State this weekend.
Gomez once again struck out the side to open the third inning, giving him six straight K’s. Hawpe began the bottom half of the inning by walking for the second time but was caught in a fielder’s choice on Cresse’s ground ball. Blair Barbier then hit a triple that scraped the left field line before finding its way past Preston Hayes into the corner to score Cresse. After Lipari lined out to the pitcher, Harris singled to center to score Barbier and give LSU a 5-0 lead.
When Gomez found himself in a bit of trouble in the fourth after a single by Joey Duhe and a walk with only one out, he then struck out Usry. With Hayes at the plate, Duhe broke for third when Cresse couldn’t find a pitch in the dirt and was called out on a tag by Brabier.
Cresse picked up another RBI, his second of the game, on a sharply-hit, two-out single up the middle to score Witten who reached base after being hit by a pitch.
In the fifth, LSU picked up another run when Wally Pontiff doubled in Billy McBride who pinch ran for Lipari.
Gomez completed his six-inning outing by getting some great defensive play. With two men on and one out, SLU’s Ryan Hoffman flied out to center, and, when shortstop Kevin Dagg tried to tag up and head to third, he was gunned down by Harris.
In the bottom of the sixth, LSU put three more on the board when Cresse hit his second home run of the season over the left field fence. After tying an LSU record with four walks, Hawpe finally got a pitch to hit in the seventh. He drilled it into right field to score Tommy Morel from second and give LSU an 11-0 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, LSU failed to put up a run in its half of the inning for the first time in the game. Guidry walked the leadoff man in the top of the ninth, but erased the runner by forcing Hoffman to ground into a double play. He stuck out Stephens to end the game.