BATON ROUGE, La. – Sixth-ranked LSU dropped a 4-3 decision to Alabama in Game 2 of the teams’ doubleheader Saturday night at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. The loss dropped the Tigers to 13-5 overall and 0-2 in conference play. Alabama won the first game of the twin bill, 6-0, on Saturday afternoon.
LSU junior southpaw Jared Poche’ fell to 2-2 on the season after allowing three runs on five hits in the nightcap in five innings of work.
Alabama starter Jake Walters (2-2) earned the win. Walters allowed just one run on seven hits in 5.2 innings. Alabama improved to 13-5 and 2-0 in the league.
“We’ve just never seemed to get into a rhythm the entire day,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “The weather conditions were not conducive to hitting, and give credit to Alabama for playing great defense and making the key pitches. There’s a reason they have a team ERA just over 2.00. They also have a scrappy lineup with a lot of tough outs, and they took advantage of some of our mistakes to score runs.
“The good news for us is that this is just two games in a 30-game league schedule. We have to come back to the park tomorrow with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and get that first conference win.”
Freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis extended his hitting streak to 18-straight games with a double in the first inning. Duplantis has now hit safely in every game this season and has the third-best hitting streak by an LSU freshman over the past 20 seasons.
The teams return for the final game of the series at 1 p.m. Saturday. The game can be heard on affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network, including Baton Rouge flagship WDGL-FM 98.1 FM. The games may be viewed live online via SEC Network +, accessible at WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app.
Live audio of the games may be accessed atwww.LSUsports.net/live with live stats at www.LSUstats.com.
The Crimson Tide loaded the bases with in the fourth after a fielding error and two hit by pitches. Alabama earned two runs off of a single through the left side by second baseman Cobie Vance and RBI ground out by first baseman Chance Vincent.
Alabama added another run on a solo home run by catcher Will Haynie to lead off the fifth inning.
The Tigers scored their first run of the day in the sixth inning. First baseman Bryce Jordan hit a two-out double to left field and pinch hitter Jordan Romero rocked a single up the middle to make it a 3-1 game.
Left fielder Keith Holcombe added a crucial insurance run for Alabama in the top of the ninth inning against reliever Parker Bugg. Holcombe hit a single to right-center field to score centerfielder Georgie Salem.
The final run proved crucial when the Tigers put up two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. With runners on first and second, left fielder Beau Jordan hit an RBI single to center field to score Fraley. Duplantis then scored on a wild pitch from third to make it a 4-3 game.
Alabama reliever Matt Foster gave up two runs in the ninth, but he earned his first save of the season when he retired LSU catcher Michael Papierski with Jordan at second base to end the game.