Luke Holman throws 12 strikeouts as No. 3 LSU baseball beats No. 15 Texas in Astros Classic

Luke Holman continued his impressive start to the season and allowed no runs in LSU's 6-3 win over Texas. PHOTO BY: Michael Bacigalupi

In a night where No. 3 LSU played in the Astros’ stadium the Tigers got a major league-type performance from its starting pitcher in a 6-3 win over No. 15 Texas.

Luke Holman continued his impressive start to the season and gave up no runs while holding the Longhorns to just three hits on the night. LSU’s pitching staff as a whole recorded 20 strikeouts.

“Luke is as good a pitcher as I’ve ever coached in terms of executing pitches,” Jay Johnson said. “As far as just pitch-to-pitch execution, I don’t know how you plan for him, because he can beat you in a lot of different ways. The skill and the aptitude and the execution are on another level right now.”

Lebarron Johnson Jr. got the start on the mound for Texas and held the Tigers scoreless through three innings before LSU made a breakthrough in the fourth inning.

LSU had two homers in the seventh inning to blow the game open and secure the win. The win saw LSU advance to 9-1 on the season while the Longhorns fell to 7-2.

Paxton Kling started the game with a single. Kling stole second and Hayden Travinski drew a walk to put runners on first and second with two outs gone. Josh Pearson struck out to head to the bottom of the first inning.

Holman gave up a double and a walk in the bottom of the first but recorded three strikeouts to get out of the inning.

Steven Milam drew a walk and a double from Michael Braswell III put runners on second and third with one out left in the top of the second, but Kling hit grounded out to head to the bottom of the inning.

Holman recorded a three up, three down inning to head to the third still scoreless.

Travinski hit a standup double in the top of the third but that was all for LSU in the inning. Texas recorded a single in the bottom of the inning but couldn’t get anything else thanks to a pair of strikeouts form Holman.

A double from Jared Jones that just barely stayed fair down the left field line started off the fourth inning. Milam drew a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs in the inning before a wild pitch the runners on third and second.

Johnson was pulled for Tanner Witt afterwards. He finished the day with six strikeouts in 3.0 innings pitched. He gave up four hits, three walks and two earned runs.

Witt walked Bingham to load the bases and Braswell hit a two RBI single to score the first runs of the game. Kling flied out to put runners on the corners but a pop up from White and a strikeout from Brady Neal sent the game to the bottom of the inning with LSU winning 2-0.

Holman forced two straight three up, three down innings but LSU’s offense was unable to add to its lead to head to the sixth inning with the score still 2-0.

Easton Tumis came in to pitch for Witt in the top of the sixth and forced three quick outs to get out of the inning.  

Holman struck out the leadoff batter in the bottom of the sixth. He then gave up a double before recording his seconds strikeout of the inning and getting pulled for Nate Ackenhausen. Holman ended the night with 12 strikeouts in 5.2 innings pitched. He gave up just three hits, walked one batter and gave up no runs. He has yet to give up a run this season.

Ackenhausen struck out the final batter of the inning to head to the seventh inning.

White hit a solo home run that went 416 feet to lead of the seventh inning and bring LSU’s lead to 3-0. Travinski walked before an error put runners on the corners and Tumis was pulled for Porter Brown.

Against the first batter he faced Brown gave up a three-run homer to Jones that brought the LSU lead to 6-0. LSU would record one more hit in the inning but headed to the bottom of the seventh without adding more to its lead.

Ackenhausen gave up a solo homer to Kimble Schuessler to start the bottom of the seventh and put Texas on the board. Ackenhausen recorded three-straight strikeouts afterwards to head to the eight leading 6-1.

Hudson Hamilton came in at the top of the eighth inning for the Longhorns. Both LSU and Texas ended the eighth inning without adding any runs.

Andre Duplantier II came in to finish out the game for Texas in the ninth inning. He gave up a double and a walk but was able to get out of the inning without allowing the Tigers to add to their lead.

Ackenhausen found himself in trouble in the bottom of the ninth after two hits put runners on the corners with no outs in the inning. Fidel Ulloa came in to close out the game for LSU. Ulloa recorded two outs before a deep hit ball from Casey Borba scored the two runners. Kling had a chance to make a play on the ball but ran a hit the wall in the outfield and couldn’t hang on.

Ulloa recorded the final out of the game with a strikeout and LSU came away with a 6-3 win.

“There’s a lot of baseball ahead of us, and there are things we need to do better,” Johnson said. “Tonight was a great win, but we’ve got so much season left, and we’ve got our hands full tomorrow with another really good team.”

LSU’s next game is Saturday at 7 p.m. against UL-Lafayette.

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Will Nickel

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