BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team finally found the right mix of pitching and hitting in the same game, as the Tigers took game one of a three-game series against the Houston Cougars, 9-4, at Alex Box Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The game was the first of a doubleheader after Friday night’s game was postponed due to rain. The second game was moved to approximately 6 p.m. at the Box.
The Tigers (3-2) got six solid innings of work from winning pitcher Jason Scobie (1-1, 6.75 ERA) and eight Tigers had at least one hit including a 2-for-3 performance by Wally Pontiff.?
Roy Corcoran pitched the final two innings for the Tigers, striking out three while allowing one run on three hits.
Houston fell to 3-5 overall.
LSU put two runners on base in both the first and second innings, but failed to score on Houston ace Bryan Harris (2-1, 3.46 ERA). Meanwhile, Scobie got out of a two-on, two-out situation by fanning rightfielder Sam Mitchell in the top of the second.
After a pair of walks wrapped around a single, a bases-loaded fielding error by Scobie gave Houston a 1-0 lead in the top of the third.
The Tigers took advantage of two Cougar errors and hit three-consecutive doubles in the bottom of the third to take a 4-1 lead. Bryan Moore, Zeph Zinsman and Ray Wright each had RBI doubles and Todd Linden hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Mike Fontenot.
LSU sent Harris to the bench in the bottom of the fourth after collecting a walk to David Raymer, a single by Theriot and an RBI single by Fontenot. Harris was credited with three innings pitched, seven hits, five runs (one earned), three walks a four strikeouts.
Freshman lefthander Austin Faught entered for Houston and gave up a two-RBI single to Pontiff, giving the Tigers a 7-1 lead.
After giving up a solo home run to designated hitter Josh Snook in the fifth, Scobie exited with two on and no outs in the sixth. Reliever Billy Brian came in and allowed the runners to advance to second and third on a wild pitch before striking out Gabe Lucas looking.
Brian then walked Chris Snyder to load the bases for Chris Klosterman, who hit a sacrifice fly to center to cut the lead to 7-3. Another walk loaded the bases for Sean Allen, who grounded out to Theriot to end the inning.
LSU matched the Cougars in the bottom of the seventh with a homer by Johnnie Thibodeaux. Linden and Ray Wright also hit blasts which were caught at the wall for outs.
Roy Corcoran entered to start the top of the eighth for the Tigers and the junior college transfer from Slaughter, La., stuck out the first two batters he faced before giving up a bunt single. He then struck out Snook to end the inning.
LSU scored its final unearned run when Snyder mishandled a grounder at first and then dropped the ball, allowing pinch hitter Aaron Hill to score from second.
Houston picked up another run in the top of the ninth on a RBI single by Allen.