Tigers Fail to Sweep Alabama, Lose 7-4

Lost the battle, but won the war

The goal of any team over a weekend series is simple: win two out of three. LSU (34-7, 12-6) came into Saturday’s game having already achieved the primary objective but couldn’t complete the sweep and lost 7-4 to Alabama (31-10, 9-9)

Conner Ware got the surprise start Saturday for LSU and pitched pretty well all things considered. In his first ever SEC start, Ware went through the entire Alabama lineup once and gave up three hits and a walk. He gave up a leadoff single in the third and was replaced by LSU’s usual game three starter, Chase Shores. Shores walked the second batter he faced, and then gave up a three-run home run to Richie Bonomolo Jr. to give Bama a 3-0 lead.

LSU certainly had chances early on to knock Zane Adams out of the game early, but couldn’t quite finish the job. LSU stranded a pair of runners in the first and second innings, but Bear Jones finally broke through in the third with his 13th home run of the season to get LSU on the board.

Alabama, however, would get that run back in the fourth inning with a clutch two-out RBI single by Bryce Fowler and then tacked on another run in the fifth. The Tide’s fifth run of the contest was set up by a throwing error from Shores. Kade Snell, who had been a pain for LSU all weekend long, singled to the pitcher’s mound and then Shores airmailed the throw to first. The error allowed Snell to advance all the way to third and then came home off of single to left field by Brady Neal.

Shores’ day was done after getting the second out of the fifth inning. He pitched 2.2 innings and gave up four hits, four runs, three of which were earned, and struck out five versus two walks.

Shores was replaced by DJ Primeaux and the lefty pitched one full inning. He was effective but his outing ended on a sour note as his final pitch of the contest ended up hitting Folwer in the head.

Jay Johnson made in-game changes to the lineup in Thursday’s come from behind win that paid dividends immediately, and Saturday Johnson pushed the right buttons again. In the sixth inning, Johnson called on Jake Brown to pinch-hit for Michael Braswell, and Brown launched the first pitch he saw to the Left Field Landing to cut Alabama’s four-run lead in half. The only reason Brown had that chance was because the inning was kept alive by a throwing error Jon Young Jr that allowed Josh Pearson to reach base safely.

Unlike Thursday’s game, however, LSU’s offense wouldn’t carry the momentum with them in the later innings. LSU wouldn’t score again the rest of the night and only managed to get on runner aboard over the game’s final three innings. That runner, Daniel Dickinson, was erased almost immediately as Curiel hit into his second double play of the night to end the seventh inning.

Alabama ended up tacking on two insurance runs in the ninth to give them more than enough room for error. LSU ended up using a total of three pitchers in the ninth. William Schmidt, who entered in the 8th, Jaden Noot, and Jacob Mayers. The trio combined to walk four batters in the ninth. As a whole, the LSU pitching staff combined for 10 walks, three wild pitches, and hit two batters.

Jake Brown made things a little interesting late after hitting an RBI triple to get LSU’s fourth run across. Brown, however, would be stranded at third when Dalton Beck struck out looking and Dickinson popped out behind home plate to end the game.

This upcoming week is going to be a big one for LSU. The Tigers will host Northwestern Tuesday night and then it’s the big one: defending national champion Tennessee coming to town for a three-game series.