LSU Baseball Loses 2nd Straight At Texas To Drop Series, 2-1

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

The No. 2 LSU baseball team has come back down to earth … landing in Texas.

The Tigers soared into Austin at No. 2 in the nation and beat No. 5 Texas, 8-2, for their 17th straight win on Friday night and their best start in school history at 22-1 with a 4-0 opening in Southeastern Conference play.

But the No. 5 Longhorns proceeded to make it a long weekend and won their second straight on Sunday afternoon, 6-2, in front of 7,211 at Disch-Falk Field to take the series two games to one. Texas (19-3, 5-1 SEC) roasted LSU’s bullpen Saturday night, erasing deficits in the fifth and seventh innings and going on to an 11-7 win.

The Tigers (22-3, 4-2 SEC) lost two straight games for the first time since getting swept in a three-game series at Tennessee last April 12-14.

LSU’s offense was punchless with just seven hits, and coach Jay Johnson got tossed in the eighth inning after apparently yelling something at an umpire.

“Texas pitched well today,” Johnson said. “We’ve been elite this season with two-strike hitting, but they beat us in that regard today. They did a better job with two strikes than we did, and that was the difference in this game.”

LSU returns to action on Tuesday against Louisiana-Lafayette at home in Alex Box Stadium before hosting Mississippi State in a three-game SEC series Thursday through Saturday.

Texas took control of Sunday’s game early against LSU starter Chase Shores, who walked Ethan Mendoza to start the game. After getting two outs, Shores gave up a single to Rylan Galvan that scored Mendoza for a 1-0 lead.

After getting one out in the second, Shores allowed three straight hits – a double to Will Gasparino, an RBI single to Tommy Farmer IV for a 2-0 deficit and a single to Mendoza. Max Belyeu’s RBI ground out made it 3-0 Texas in the second.

The Longhorns went up 5-0 in the fourth when Shores walked Mendoza again, then allowed a two-run home run to Belyeu. Shores left after the fourth and took the loss to fall to 4-1. The redshirt sophomore allowed seven hits in all and five runs with two walks and three strikeouts. He pitched behind most of the game behind in the count with just 59 strikes out of a career-high 96 pitches.

The Tigers cut it to 5-2 in the sixth. Jake Brown drove in the first run with a single. Steven Milam doubled and later scored on a double steal. Texas answered in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI triple by Belyeu off Casan Evans, who opened the fifth inning. Evans allowed four hits and the one run in three and two-thirds innings with zero walks an five strikeouts.

Texas right-handed starter Ruger Riojas held the Tigers to two runs on seven hits and one walk in five and two-thirds inning for the win to go to 5-1. He struck out six.

Left-hander Dylan Volantis shut down the Tigers over the final three and one-third innings with five strikeouts. He walked one and allowed zero hits and runs for his fifth save.