BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU baseball Tigers used a 13-hit attack to pound Duquesne, 12-2, completing a sweep of the three-game weekend series Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
The third-ranked Tigers (9-2), who have now won seven in a row, close their season-opening 12-game homestand Tuesday night at 7 p.m. when they play host to Nicholls State. The Tigers will go on the road for the first time in 2001 next weekend when they face fifth-ranked Arizona State in Tempe.
The Tigers scored 49 runs in the series’ three games, the third-highest run total LSU has accumulated in a three-game series. The record is 60 set against Ohio in 1999. LSU scored 52 in a 1992 series against Stephen F. Austin and 49 in 1996 against Georgia.
After spotting the Dukes (0-3) a 1-0 lead in the second, the Tigers scored three in the bottom of the second. Sean Barker’s one-out triple plated Johnnie Thibodaux before Zeph Zinsman’s RBI single plated Barker to give LSU a 2-1 lead. Zinsman would score later on Ryan Theriot’s fielder’s choice.
The Dukes cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the third, but LSU put the game away with a four-run fourth. Matt Heat’s RBI single scored Zinsman with the inning’s first run, then a single by Theriot scored Heath to make it 5-2.
A subsequent error by Duquesne first baseman Adam Brooks on Wally Pontiff’s routine grounder that would have been the third out of the inning allowed Theriot and Mike Fontenot to also cross.
The support would be enough for Tiger starter Lane Mestepey, as the freshman southpaw struck out six over six innings to improve to 2-0.
Zinsman, who tied the LSU single-game record by hitting three home runs in Friday’s 13-9 victory, added his fourth home run of the series and his team-leading fifth of the season in the seventh. Fontenot and David Raymer would also hit home runs in the eighth to cap scoring.