JOURNAL SPORTS
BATON ROUGE – A midweek loss to an unranked opponent is nothing new for an under-achieving LSU baseball team this season.
Prior losses to Northeastern and Sacramento State, both still with sub .500 records topped the red-faced list for the Tigers, but Tuesday night, they added another lowlight.
At least Bethune-Cookman has a sparkling 23-10 record and the Wildcats share the Southwestern Athletic Conference lead at 10-2.
But as of Tuesday night, they are undoubtedly best known so far this season for knocking off an LSU team in Baton Rouge that has won its last two SEC series.
Bethune-Cookman overcame a 6-5 deficit with a five-run seventh inning and posted a 10-7 victory over defending national champion LSU in Alex Box Stadium on Skip Bertman Field.
“It’s a tough loss tonight, there’s no getting around that,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “Our players brought enthusiasm to the field tonight and competed hard. We had a really tough seventh inning; the difference in the game was our inability to control the strike zone on both sides of the ball in that seventh inning.”
LSU – which left 15 runners on base — dropped to 22-12.
The Tigers broke a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning when rightfielder Jake Brown launched a solo homer, his 12th dinger of the year.
Bethune-Cookman responded by striking for five runs in the top of the seventh inning. The outburst featured an RBI single by third baseman Andrey Martinez, a pair of bases-loaded walks and a two-run LSU infield error.
LSU loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, but reliever Jean Zambrano entered the game and struck out the side to end the threat.
Bethune-Cookman reliever Andris Barroso (2-3) earned the victory, recording a scoreless sixth inning with one hit, one walk and no strikeouts.
LSU reliever Santiago Garcia (1-1) was charged with the loss, as he allowed three runs – two earned – on three hits in 2.1 innings with no walks and five strikeouts.
Zambrano earned his first save of the season, limiting the Tigers to one run on one hit in 3.0 innings with two walks and three strikeouts.
The Tigers return to action at 6:30 p.m. Friday when they open a three-game SEC series in Oxford, Miss., versus Ole Miss. Friday’s game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SEC Network +.
Continue your article here…