By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -– Traversing 10 SEC baseball series each season is like tiptoeing through a mine field.
You often need miracles to live to fight another day.
Like LSU first baseman Jared Jones’ three-run walk-off homer to cap the Tigers’ six-run ninth inning for a 6-3 Game 1win over Tennessee on April 25. It was a stolen victory that eventually won the series two games to one.
And like in Sunday’s series deciding Game 3 at Texas A&M when No. 2 LSU was on the wrong side of heartbreak. Aggies’ right fielder Caden Sorrell slammed a three-run, two-out homer in A&M’s four-run eighth inning for a 6-4 victory to win the series two games to one.
“We want to execute a little better, play a little better with a competitive mindset of a team that’s capable of accomplishing a lot of things,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said.
It was a series dominated by masterful pitching, especially from the starters.
LSU had its second-worst SEC hitting series of the season. The Tigers hit .214, not as bad as their anemic .188 performance when they were swept at Auburn four weekends ago, as AU hit .291.
But the difference in the A&M series was the Aggies hit .212. vs. LSU and still managed to win Game 1 3-1 and Game 3 after losing the second game 2-1.
Josh Pearson (4 for 8, .500) and Ethan Frey (4 of 10, .400) combined for eight of the Tigers’ 21 hits in the A&M series.
But four Tigers who started in all three games hit .200 or below – centerfielder Chris Stanfield (.200), shortstop Daniel Dickinson (.125), third baseman Michael Braswell III (0.90) and freshman outfielder Derek Curiel (.083), whose batting average dropped from an SEC-leading .380 to .361 after going 1 for 12.
In a collective 17.1 innings vs. A&M, LSU starting pitchers Kade Anderson (Game 1), Anthony Eyanson (Game 2) and Casan Evans (Game 3) had a 1.56 earned run average. The trio allowed nine hits and three earned runs with 29 strikeouts and seven walks.
Eyanson’s 112-pitch complete game gem with 14 strikeouts was as impressive as Anderson’s 135-pitch complete game shutout on April 3 at Oklahoma when he struck out 14.
“Everybody saw tonight that Anthony is one of the best pitchers in the country,” Johnson said after Eyanson dominated the Aggies in the Saturday nightcap of a doubleheader after Friday night’s game one was rained out and postponed until Saturday afternoon. “Anthony is a competitor. There was no way I was taking him out of that game. He dominated the pitch count throughout the outing. He’s a great pitcher, but he’s also an elite competitor, and that’s what makes him special.”
But for the second straight week, eight relievers combined for an ERA north of 6.00 -– 6.23 in 8.2 innings vs. A&M after its 6.43 in seven innings vs. Tennessee.
The Tigers close their regular season home SEC starting Friday against No. 11 Arkansas, who will take a big leap into the top 10 after sweeping league leader Texas this past weekend in Fayetteville.
The Razorbacks limited the Longhorns to a combined one run with a 29-to-5 strikeouts-to-walks ratio in winning the opener 9-0 and the nightcap 6-1.
Arkansas hammered five home runs in a 13-8 game three victory.
Here’s a recap of the LSU-A&M series:
GAME 1: Texas A&M 3, LSU 1 – LSU’s inability to get clutch hits with runners on base allowed Texas A&M to win in the first game of an SEC doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers hit just .143 (2 for 14 with runners on base) and went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position vs. the Aggies.
Starting pitchers Kade Anderson of LSU and Ryan Prager of A&M engaged in the expected duel.
Anderson struck out 12 of the 25 batters he faced in 113 pitches in six innings. He gave up three hits, walked two, and gave up one run despite the Aggies opening every inning putting a man on base.
Prager lasted seven innings and 102 pitches, giving up five hits and one run with five strikeouts and a walk.
LSU scored its only run on first baseman Jared Jones’ solo homer in the sixth inning.
GAME 2: LSU 2, Texas A&M 1 – Nine innings. 112 pitches, 71.4 percent strikes thrown. Two hits allowed.
And when unflappable LSU starting pitcher Anthony Eyanson recorded his 14th strikeout to end a complete game victory over Texas A&M on Saturday night in Game 2 of an SEC doubleheader, he turned to his teammates rushing from the Tigers’ dugout and screamed loud enough to make sure A&M’s players heard.
“They were loud the whole game,” Eyanson said of the Aggies relentlessly throwing verbal jabs from their dugout at Eyanson. “They let me hear it when the home run (by A&M’s Ben Royo) was hit. So I let them hear it when the game was over.”
LSU’s Johnson called Eyanson’s effort “the pitching performance of the year.”
The Tigers got the runs they needed for the win when Jones doubled to open the top of the sixth inning and scored on right fielder Ethan Frey’s RBI double.
Three batters, one out, and two pitching changes later, Frey scored from third base for a 2-0 lead on a perfectly executed safety squeeze bunt for a single by pinch-hitter Josh Pearson.
GAME 3: Texas A&M 6, LSU 4 – LSU’s chance to record its sixth SEC series this season evaporated on one pitch on Sunday afternoon.
Texas A&M right fielder Caden Sorrell’s three-run, two-out homer capped a four-run eighth inning for an Aggies’ victory in the third and deciding game in Blue Bell Park.
After Tigers’ relief pitcher Connor Ware gave up a single to A&M centerfielder Jace LaViolette, reliever Zac Cowan entered and was tagged for a single by Aggies’ third baseman Wyatt Henseler before Sorrell crushed a 2-1 Cowan pitch for the game-winning homer.
After A&M left 10 men on base, stranding runners in five of eight innings, including leaving the bases loaded twice, the Aggies finally broke through.
LSU starting pitcher Casan Evans couldn’t match the Saturday doubleheader performances of Game 1 starter Kade Anderson and Game 2 starter Anthony Eyanson. Evans struggled through 93 pitches, allowing one run in just 3.1 innings.
LSU’s Johnson then used a revolving door of six relievers, hoping to get the Tigers across the finish line as winners.
But it didn’t happen.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com