LSU Drops Third Consecutive Game, Lose 12-1 to Louisiana Tech

Four batters. That’s how long it took for Louisiana Tech to jump out in front of LSU Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium and the Bulldogs never looked back, beating LSU 12-1.

The LSU bats could do virtually nothing against Louisiana Tech’s Logan Robbins. Robbins cruised through his first six innings of work, allowing only two hits and zero runs. LSU wouldn’t get a run off of Robinson until the seventh inning and by that point Tech had seven runs on the board.

“Just a bad day at the field in every way,” Paul Mainieri said after the game. “Nothing really went right tonight, it was just a bad game all the way around.”

The Bulldog bats jumped on LSU pitching early and often as Tech scored in five of the first six innings. The highlight came from a solo shot to the Diamond Deck in right field by Louisiana Tech center fielder Parker Bates. The Bulldogs then tacked on another four runs in the eighth inning to bury LSU in an 11-1 hole.

The LSU pitching staff had a miserable night from the start. Chase Costello got the start and allowed four runs, three earned in two innings.

“Usually when you don’t have your secondary pitch working for you and you can only command your fastball they can kind of jump on it,” Costello said. “They were sitting on (my fastball) dead right and it happens. I gotta be better.”

The second inning was much better for Costello, getting Tech to go down in order, but he allowed a pair of singles to begin the third and was pulled before recording an out. Costello took the loss and his 10.80 ERA inflated to a gaudy 11.15.

“I was just trying to feel out my secondary pitches in between innings,” Costello said. “It felt a little better, but I guess in the game I wasn’t spotting up where I was supposed to be.”

Clay Moffitt allowed two runs and was responsible for the Bates home run. Aaron George got rocked late, allowing Tech to score five runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Bulldog leadoff hitters were 5-9 and Tech batted .444 with runners on base. Over the course of this three-game losing skid, the LSU pitching staff has given up 36 runs.

“It’s baseball, you’re not always going to have your A-stuff every day,” Costello said. “You’re going to have to come out here and compete day in and day out no matter if you have all your pitches or if you don’t have any of your pitches.”

When the night concluded, the Tiger bats could only muster four hits and draw one walk. Tech had four hits and multiple runs in two separate innings. The LSU defense was less than stellar, ending the night with two errors, one by shortstop Josh Smith.

“That was a tough one,” Smith said. “It was kind of embarrassing, honestly.”

LSU will need to put Tuesday’s ugly performance behind them quick. The next time the Tigers take the field will be Thursday against a top-five Arkansas team.

“We just need to forget about it,” Smith said. “We’re playing against a top-five team in the country so we gotta be better.”