No. 3 LSU baseball narrowly beats UL by one run in Louisiana-themed Astros Classic

March 2, 2024 Will Nickel LSU Baseball 0
Hayden Travinski recorded three RBI in LSU's 5-4 win over UL. PHOTO BY: LSU Athletics

No. 3 LSU beat UL 5-4 in a defensive battle at the Astros Foundation College Classic that came down to the wire.

Gage Jump and UL starting pitcher Andrew Herrmann each gave up just one hit on the night. LSU gave up a homer in the top of the ninth to make it a one run game and a single put the tying run on base. Lefty Justin Loer managed to record a strikeout to end the game.

“Gage was outstanding,” head coach Jay Johnson said, “and I couldn’t be happier with the effort we got from all of our pitchers against a good offensive team. When you get that type of starting pitching, you’re obviously going to have a chance to win.”

LSU stranded nine UL runners on base in the game and the two teams combined for just 11 hits. Travinski’s solo homer in the bottom of the seventh ended up being the game-winning run for LSU. He finished the game with three RBI and two hits.

LSU (10-1) and UL (5-5) were locked in a pitcher’s duel through the first four innings. The first hit of the game didn’t come until a single from Trey LaFleur with two outs gone in the fifth inning. John Taylor fouled out in the next at bat to end the inning.

LSU finally got things going on offense in the bottom of the fifth inning after Jake Brown and Paxton Kling both walked putting runners on first and second with one two outs to go. Tommy White recorded LSU’s first hit of the game to load the bases before a wild pitch from Herrman scored the first run of the game for LSU.

Matthew Holzhammer came in to pitch for Herrmann after that. Herrmann finished with eight strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched. He gave up one hit, three earned runs and five walks. Holzhammer gave up a two RBI double and an RBI double to Jared Jones to bring LSU’s lead to 4-0 heading into the sixth inning.

“Hermann made it really tough on our hitters tonight,” Johnson said, “and we just had to stay with it. As the game moved on, we started laying off pitches that we didn’t previously, and that was the difference in the game.”

Griffin Herring came in to pitch for Jump to start the sixth inning. Jump finished with five strikeouts in 5.0 innings pitched and gave up just one hit with no walks or runs.

Herring struck out the first two batters he faced before giving up two staright singles to put runners on first and second. Duncan Pastore then blasted a three RBI homer to bring the score to 4-3.

Gavin Guidry came in to pitch after the homer and recorded a strikeout to head to the bottom of the frame. Herring pitched 0.2 innings and gave up three hits and three earned runs.

Blake Marshall came in for the Cajuns and LSU recorded another hit and a walk to start off the bottom of the sixth. Marshall was pulled for David Christie who quickly recorded three outs to get out of the inning.

Guidry recorded two straight strikeouts to start the seventh but was replaced by Loer after walking a batter. Loer forced the last out to head to the bottom of the inning.

A solo homer from Travinski added to LSU’s lead before Michael Braswell III was hit by a pitch and Steven Milam was walked to put runners on first and second with one out to go. A wild pitch brought the runners to second and third, but Brown struck out to end the inning.

Loer recorded a quick three up, three down inning before UL pitcher JT Etheridge did the same to head to the ninth with LSU up 5-3.

Loer looked like he was going to close out the game without any trouble, but a solo homer from Jose Torres and a single from LaFluer put LSU in a jam. The Tigers needed just one out, but the tying run was on base. Loer threw the final strike of the game with a full count to secure the win for LSU.

“It was a great win, hard-fought, and we knew it would be,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “UL Lafayette has a great team, and I think this win will prove to be valuable for us down the road. We’re very happy to win; the players really did a good job tonight. We were a little slow at the start offensively, but we did what we needed to do to win the game.”

LSU’s next game is against Texas State and will start tomorrow at 3 p.m.

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