Twenty-two

13-4.  And it wasn't really that close.  LSU scored 4 runs in both the 4th and the 8th innings, en route to a pretty thorough thrashing of Southern Miss.  Now LSU gets to kick back, watch UNO and USM beat each other up tomorrow, and then play the tired winner in the nightcap.  Then they still have to beat LSU twice. 

Things are going great, ain't they?

Really, what is there to complain about?  The Box is packed and it is getting the proper sendoff it deserves.  We didn't quite set an attendance record, but it was close, and maybe we'll have a record crowd for tomorrow's game when the Tigers hopefully walk around the park after a regionals win. 

Matt Clark and Blake Dean are hitting the snot out of the ball.  Clark is hitting bombs that make me think its 1997.  Dean hit two home runs against TSU, and Clark responded with two homers against USM. 

Ryan Verdugo had a fairly rough night on the mound.  He labored through five innings, let USM back in the game, but he notched a win.  Coleman got some heavy use so he might be unavailable for Sunday, but otherwise, the bullpen is completely intact and we can still throw out are #2 and #3 starters if need be, as well as Bradford as a swingman out of the pen. 

Even more encouraging was the way LSU took advantage of mistakes.  The 8th inning rally which blew the game open started when USM committed two errors on the same play, allowing LeMahieu to reach second base with two outs.  LSU pounced on the mistake and scored four runs, all with two outs.  That's what good teams do: they punish you for mistakes. 

The only down note to this day is that Skip Bertman has been hospitalized for the early signs of a heart attack.   Get better, Skip.