BATON ROUGE, La. – Third baseman Cade Doughty and catcher Hayden Travinski combined for eight RBI Tuesday night to lead 10th-ranked LSU to a 10-7 win over Southeastern Louisiana in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
LSU won its sixth straight game and improved to 15-3 on the year. Southeastern saw its eight-game win streak end as the Lions dropped to 11-5.
LSU will open conference play at 6 p.m. CT Friday in Game 1 of an SEC weekend series against Mississippi State in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. Friday’s game will be telecast on the SEC Network, and it can be heard on affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
“These teams we play, they have a lot of pride and very good ball players,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I have so much respect for this Southeastern Louisiana team and the way they play the game. These guys are legit, and they have a really good lineup, and it was a real battle all night.”
LSU starting pitcher Will Hellmers (4-1) earned the win, working four innings and recording no walks and three strikeouts. He allowed five hits, three runs while firing 50 pitches.
Garrett Edwards picked up his second save by retiring the side in order in the ninth inning. Edwards, Ty Floyd and Devin Fontenot combined to blank the Lions over the final 3.1 innings.
“Floyd, Fontenot and Edwards did a phenomenal job in shutting Southeastern down,” Mainieri said. “It’s a good thing they did, because we stopped offensively after the fourth inning. We were having a good offensive night, but then their bullpen shut us down. Our bullpen did the job, and we were able to earn a hard-fought victory.”
LSU bolted to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by centerfielder Mitchell Sanford and Travinski’s three-run homer, his second dinger of the season.
Southeastern responded with back-to-back homers in the third inning by third baseman Jacob Burke and first baseman Preston Faulkner to narrow the gap to 4-3.
The Tigers, however, erupted for five runs in the fourth inning as Doughty smashed a three-run homer – his eighth dinger of the year – and Travinski ripped a two-run double. Doughty has unloaded six homers in the Tigers’ past six games.
SLU starter Brock Batty (0-1) was charged with the loss as he pitched one inning and allowed four runs on two hits with two walks and one strikeout.