BATON ROUGE — LSU right-hander Tyler Jones fired seven strong innings, and shortstop Austin Nola delivered two hits and an RBI triple to lead the seventh-ranked Tigers past Sacred Heart, 6-1, Wednesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (12-1) distanced themselves from the Pioneers late with four runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Sacred Heart fell to 4-4 with the loss.
Jones (3-0) remained undefeated on the season as the junior surrendered only three hits and one earned run and struck out four.
Nola finished 2-for-3 on the night with a run scored and a walk, while left fielder Trey Watkins set the table for the Tigers out of the lead-off spot with a pair of runs, an RBI single and a walk.
“I thought we played pretty well tonight, and I’m glad we had a close, competitive game,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “We needed a game where we had to come through with clutch pitching and hitting in pressure situations, and we did that tonight. Tyler pitched very well, though he gave up a few too many walks for my liking. He did make some good pitches to get out of the jams he faced.”
Following a Sacred Heart error to put Watkins on second, designated hitter Raph Rhymes delivered an RBI single to right to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the third. However, the Pioneers tied it at 1-1 in the top of the fifth when designated hitter JJ Edwards hit a sacrifice fly to right.
LSU third baseman Tyler Hanover put the Tigers back on top, 2-1, in the sixth with his own sacrifice fly to right, scoring Watkins from third.
The Tigers added two runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 4-1 advantage after second baseman JaCoby Jones and Watkins provided back-to-back RBI singles up the middle.
Nola and right fielder Mason Katz gave LSU a pair of insurance runs in the eighth. Nola tripled to deep right center to bring home Hanover, and Katz successfully executed the squeeze play in the next at-bat to plate the Tigers’ shortstop.
Freshman right-hander Ryan Eades relieved Jones in the eighth and hurled a scoreless frame before Matty Ott finished off the Pioneers with a perfect ninth.
Sacred Heart left-hander Nick Leiningen (0-1) was charged with the loss after giving up two runs (one earned) on two hits and three walks in six innings.
The Tigers will gear up for a big test this weekend when they welcome No. 6 Cal State Fullerton to Alex Box Stadium. Game 1 will begin at 7 p.m. CST.
Games 1 and 3 will be televised locally on Cox Sports Television, while live video, audio and stats for all three contests may be accessed in the Geaux Zone at www.LSUsports.net/HDbaseball. In addition, all three games can be heard on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
LSU 6, Sacred Heart 1 (Mar 09, 2011 at Baton Rouge, La.)
Sacred Heart…….. 000 010 000 – 1 4 1 (4-4)
LSU………………… 001 001 22X – 6 7 0 (12-1)
Pitchers: Sacred Heart – LEININGEN, Nick; SCRIBNER, Troy(7); FITTON, Matt(8) and HORN, Derick.
LSU – Tyler Jones; Ryan Eades (8); Matty Ott (9) and Ty Ross.
Win-Tyler Jones (3-0) Loss-LEININGEN, Nick (0-1) T-2:06 A-9765
Actual Attendance: 3,945