BATON ROUGE — In atoning for a series loss to Mississippi State this past weekend, the LSU baseball team put together a complete performance on the mound, at the plate and on the field to defeat Northwestern State, 13-0, Tuesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
LSU improved to 33-13 overall.? Northwestern State fell to 27-22 on the season with the loss.
Tiger starter Heath McMurray (2-1) pitched three scheduled innings and picked up the victory in his first start of the season, while NSU’s Glidewell received the loss and fell to 3-6.
Offensively, LSU was led by Jeremy Witten who went 2-for-4 with four RBI, Brad Cresse who was 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI and Ryan Jorgensen who doubled three times and scored three times.
The LSU pitching staff allowed only four hits, all singles, while walking only three and striking out 14. There were no errors in the field for the Tigers and two for the Demons which led to three unearned runs.
After Ryan Theriot walked in the third inning, Brad Cresse hit his 23rd home run of the season to put the Tigers up 2-0 against the Demons. Cresse’s long ball to left brought the senior catcher within one homer of national leader Mitch Jones of Arizona State who has 24 through 45 games. In a three-games series earlier this season, Jones went 2-for-10 against LSU pitching with his 10th homer and three walks.
After Brad Hawpe earned only his fifth hit of the season off of left-handed pitching (5-for-50 on the season), Ryan Jorgensen doubled off of the top of the right-field wall to put runners on second and third with no outs. Hawpe scored on a fielder’s choice by Jeremy Witten and Jorgensen scored on a single by Wally Pontiff. Up 4-0, Victor Brumfield singled to put runners on the corners for Theriot.
With only one out, Northwestern State starter Clifton Glidewell was lifted in favor of righthander Clint Floyd. Glidewell left the game after 3 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out two.
Floyd got Theriot to ground into an RBI fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning before Fontenot flew out to center.
Bo Pettit, who entered in relief of McMurray to begin the fourth inning, pitched two scoreless innings against NSU, allowing only one hit while striking out four.
In the fifth inning, LSU jumped chased Floyd from the game after a walk to Cresse, a single by Cedrick Harris, a hit by pitch on Jorgensen and a two-run double by Witten. With runners on second and third and one out, Jason Slanina allowed a run-scoring ground out by Pontiff before pinch hitter Ray Wright struck out to end the inning with an 8-0 lead.
Floyd finished his outing with one inning pitched, three earned runs on two hits, one walk and one strikeout.
Slanina pitched only 1 2/3 innings before Pete Wardell entered to begin the bottom of the eighth. Wardell allowed Jorgensen to get his third double of the game, tying a school record which has been matched 14 times. Jorgensen scored on a single by Witten — his fourth RBI of the game. Wright reached base on an error and Theriot walked to load the bases for Fontenot who cleared the bases with a three-RBI triple off the center field wall.
As coach Skip Bertman continued to work his pitching staff after a sub-par weekend against Mississippi State, Brian Tallet entered in the eighth for the Tigers in relief of Tim Nugent who pitched an inning of scoreless ball. Tallet also pitched one inning of scoreless ball.
In the bottom of the eighth, Hawpe doubled to left — his 26th of the season, one short of a school record — before pinch hitter Mike Daly earned his second career hit and first extra-base hit as a Tiger to drive in Hawpe.
Brad David, a freshman from Baton Rouge, made his first appearance as a Tiger and struck out the first two batters he faced before walking the third on a 3-2 count and struck out the final batter of the game.