GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU coach Jay Johnson tried something different by changing his weekend pitching rotation for the first time all season. But it backfired as his bullpen ignited Alabama, and the Tigers lost, 7-4, on Saturday night in front of 11,833 at Alex Box Stadium Stadium.
ANOTHER SWEEP WITHIN LSU’S GRASP AT THE BAMA BREEZE?
No. 9 LSU (34-17, 12-6 Southeastern Conference) blew a chance to sweep its fourth SEC series of the season after winning the opener, 11-6, and taking Friday’s game, 4-3. No. 15 Alabama (31-10, 9-9 SEC) never trailed after losing leads in the first two games.
Junior left-hander Conner Ware started for the fifth time this season, but first time in the SEC in place of usual No. 3 starter Chase Shores. Ware allowed no runs on two hits and one walk with a strikeout in the first two innings. But when Bryce Fowler led off the third inning with a single, Johnson hooked him.
Ware had thrown three innings or more three times this season and was only at 37 pitches with 23 for strikes.
Shores, who had started every previous game three of a series all season, came on to get Alabama top hitter Justin Lebron to line out to third base. But then he walked Kade Snell and gave up a three-run home run to Richie Bonomolo Jr. for a 3-0 Tide lead. Ware was charged with the first of those three runs and took the loss to fall to 4-1 and has a 4.66 ERA with one of the lowest batting averages allowed on the team at .159.
Shores lasted just two and two-thirds innings as he allowed three earned runs on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts. He remained 5-2, but his ERA is up to 5.44. And his team batting average allowed is the highest on the team at .294 of the pitchers to have thrown more than an inning.
Johnson explained that starting Ware over Shores was an effort to delay having to go to the bullpen as his best two relievers – Zac Cowan and Casan Evans – pitched to their limits on Thursday and Friday in his mind and were not going to be used in this one. Cowan had been the extended reliever for Shores in previous games, but he threw 29 pitches over three innings Friday in getting his sixth save of the season. He also threw four pitches Thursday and earned that save, but one has to consider the warm-up tosses in each outing.
Evans threw 35 pitches through two and a third innings in getting the win on Thursday, but that was two nights ago.
“I’m very comfortable starting him,” Johnson said of Shores. “Have been for 10 weeks in a row. That didn’t change. This was a little bit of a, ‘Hey, how do we get through tonight when you tapped out your two best guys out of the pen?’ I just felt like to hold them down as best we could, we just were going to need more guys.”
And perhaps Evans?
Johnson also said it was the type game that the Tigers might need to win, 10-7, which does not shine a lot of confidence on his pen.
LSU clawed back, but that pen let it down late.
Jared Jones hit his team-high 13th home run of the season to get the Tigers within 3-1 in the third inning. But Alabama got that back off Shores in the fourth with an RBI single by Fowler for a 4-1 lead and went up 5-1 in the fifth on an RBI single by former Tiger catcher Brady Neal.
The Tigers drew within 5-3 in the sixth inning on a two-run home run by Jake Brown, but LSU would get no closer as its bullpen imploded in the ninth inning.
Freshman William Schmidt had pitched admirably in the eighth as he retired Lebron and Bonomolo back-to-back with a runner on third to end the inning. But he inexplicably walked the first two batters in the ninth and left. Jaden Noot gave up a single to load the bases before striking out Coleman Mizell. He allowed a sacrifice fly to center to pinch-hitter Brennen Norton for a 6-3 deficit, which is understandable. But then he walked Fowler. And he was out of there.
Jacob Mayers relieved Noot and promptly walked Lebron with the bases loaded for a 7-3 deficit. In all, seven LSU relievers gave up a ridiculous nine walks and two hit batsmen with one intentional walk by Schmidt in the eighth.
LSU reliever William Schmidt walks 1st two batters in the 9th down 5-3. With players being paid handsomely by NIL now, coaches should be able to fine them for ridiculous walks.
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) April 20, 2025
The Tigers rallied in the bottom of the ninth as Josh Pearson led off with a walk off stud reliever Carson Ozmer, who then gave up an RBI triple to Brown to cut the Tide’s lead to 7-4. With better relieving or if Johnson had stuck with Ware longer, LSU may have had a chance.
But Ozmer struck out pinch-hitters Tanner Reaves and Dalton Beck back-to-back before Daniel Dickinson popped out to the catcher to end the game and earn his 13th save.
Alabama’s bullpen, meanwhile, allowed all of one walk over four innings. Ozmer gave up one hit and one run with the walk and struck out five. Starter Zane Adams, who was demoted from ace to No. 3 starter after back-to-back horrendous outings, allowed just one run to LSU on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts in five innings for the win to improve to 5-2.
The Tigers had just seven hits in all and left six on. With runners in scoring position, LSU was 0-for-6, including 0-for-3 in the ninth. And the Tigers went out in order twice and hit into a pair of double plays.
LSU hosts Northwestern State Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before hosting defending national champion and No. 4 Tennessee on Friday through Sunday.
“We need those guys,” Johnson said of the second-tier bullpen. “And thought there were some good steps. Cooper Williams and DJ Primeaux were awesome tonight.”
Williams, a freshman, put up all zeroes against four batters in the seventh and eighth with a strikeout. Primeaux, a redshirt sophomore, also put up all zeroes against three batters in the fifth and sixth with a strikeout.
“They’ve improved,” Johnson said of the second line pen. “It’s just the command piece is the last piece for those guys really having a chance in their baseball careers.”
Or possibly the first piece?
For pitchers have to not walk batters before they can make a run.
Be the first to comment