BATON ROUGE — LSU freshman Brian Wilson pitched six shutout innings, allowing his teammates to build a 5-0 lead as the Tigers cruised past New Orleans, 7-2, in a non-conference game Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The win was the seventh for LSU over their in-state rivals, extending the Tigers’ series edge to 37-29. The Tigers will play the Privateers (15-14) of the Sun Belt Conference on May 1 at Zephyr Field in suburban New Orleans.
The fourth-ranked Tigers (22-8-1) play an exhibition game Wednesday night at 7 p.m. CDT against the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. LSU then travels to Columbia for a three-game Southeastern Conference series against seventh-ranked South Carolina that begins Friday at 7 p.m. EDT.
Wilson, a native of Londonderry, N.H., came into his second start of the year with just an 0-1 record with a 9,00 ERA, but did not allow a run until giving up a pair in the seventh inning. He finished the game with four strikeouts and just four hits allowed over seven innings to pick up his first win in an LSU uniform.
Ryan Theriot led off the LSU first with a double, and a walk to Mike Fontenot and Wally Pontiff’s bunt single loaded the bases. Theriot scored the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly by Todd Linden before Bryan Moore’s grounder to second plated Fontenot.
The Tigers would score their next three runs on home runs. Johnnie Thibodeaux, getting a rare start in right field, hit a solo shot in the second, then Fontenot hit a two-run shot in the fifth to make it 5-0. The home runs were the fifth of the year for both Thibodeaux and Fontenot.
Prior to getting on the board in the seventh, UNO’s only real threat came in the second when Jeff Miller led off with a double and went to third on a fly ball. But he was picked off of third to end the threat, and UNO would get only one baserunner in scoring position over the next four innings.
Miller’s double in the seventh broke the ice for UNO, and he would score two batters later on a double play grounder. The Privateers would load the bases with two out in the eighth with the help of an error and Steve Rowell’s infield single, but Miller took a called strike three to end the frame.