Purple-Gold World Series: Gold Avoids Sweep, Wins Game 3

The Gold team avoided a sweep at the hands of the Purple team in 2020 Purple-Gold World Series, winning the final game of the series 3-0 Friday night.

“These three games were not the crispest of games, but you are able to learn a lot about players in these situations,” Paul Mainieri said. “You put them under the lights and put some pressure on them and see what happens. Some handle it a little better than others, but this week was great experience for our players.”

Freshman WIll Hellmers got the start for the Gold team and pitched well, striking out four in three innings of work and only allowed two hits.

“Will Hellmers is an unbelievably mature kid,” Mainieri said. “He knows the game, and he’s is a winner. He just has a great feel for the game that will help us a lot on the mound and with the bat this season.”

The Gold team scored two of its three runs in the second inning. Freshman outfielder Dylan Crews doubled off of Landon Marceaux and an RBI single by Cade Doughty scored Crews. Doughty came home when a ground ball by Will Safford was botched by the infield, one of four errors committed by the Purple side.

“The only thing that was concerning to me tonight was that we had four errors in the infield.,” Mainieri said. “That’s certainly something we’re going to have to tighten up.”

Aaron George took the mound for the final two innings and was able to pitch out of a pair of jams. In the sixth inning George stranded a pair of Purple baserunners, and in the seventh worked his way around a surrendered leadoff single.

“Overall, we got a lot done in this series,” Mainieri said. “They weren’t three particularly well-played games, but that shouldn’t take away from some of the good performances that we had. We’ll come back for preseason practice in January, and we will have a very competitive environment with guys working to earn roles on the team.”

The 2021 LSU baseball team won’t meet again as a group until the spring semester begins January 11. From here, players can work individually until LSU’s Thanksgiving break begins on November 25.