JOURNAL SPORTS
BATON ROUGE – Right-hander Chase Shores worked five innings Sunday in his first appearance on the mound in nearly two years, and designated hitter Ashton Larson drove in five runs as the second-ranked LSU baseball team completed a weekend sweep with an 8-1 win over Purdue Fort Wayne in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
LSU improved to 3-0, while Purdue Fort Wayne dropped to 0-3. The Tigers rolled 14-0 in Friday’s opener, then 10-1 on Saturday, outscoring the visitors 32-2 in the series.
“I thought we had a good weekend,” coach Jay Johnson said. “I’m proud of our team, the pitching staff was excellent, and that takes a lot of pressure off the offense, and we have a good offense. So, that’s a good combination. We did a lot of good things, and I like the fact we were able to get a lot of guys into the games.”
LSU will play host to Southern at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Shores, who suffered a season-ending elbow injury in March 2023 and redshirted last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, threw 67 pitches in 5.0 innings on Sunday, limiting the Mastodons to one run on three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.
“You’re not supposed to have favorites as a coach, but Chase is up there at the top,” said Johnson. “He’s a great person and a high-talent, high-ceiling arm that chose LSU as the place he wanted to be. When he got hurt in 2023, that was a thunderbolt, and he’s been through a lot. Just seeing how he’s gone about his work has been impressive.
“I’m really happy for Chase and obviously ecstatic to have him back has a huge contributor to our team.”
Trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the fourth inning, the Tigers struck for five runs as Larson blasted a three-run homer, his first of the season. The Tigers scored another run on a wild pitch, and leftfielder Derek Curiel provided an RBI single to punctuate the outburst and give LSU a 5-1 advantage.
LSU extended the lead to 6-1 in the fifth when third baseman Michael Braswell III delivered a run-scoring single.
LSU added two runs in the sixth as Larson drilled a two-run double to score first baseman Jared Jones and second baseman Daniel Dickinson.