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Baseball Takes Series From Mississippi State, Goes for Sweep Sunday

Tigers have taken the series from the defending national champs in their own building

By Zach Junda

Thanks to home runs by Jacob Berry and Jordan Thompson, LSU (22-9, 6-5) has now taken the weekend series from Mississippi State by way of a 4-3 win Saturday afternoon.

“I think our team is maturing a little bit, and it showed in the game today,” Jay Johnson said. “We need to continue to re-focus and concentrate on the task at hand. It’s another test tomorrow to focus on playing quality baseball. We need to play quality baseball and let the result take care of itself.”

LSU wasted little time in extending its ninth inning momentum from Friday night’s game as Jacob Berry blasted a three-run shot to right in the first inning to give the Tigers the lead.

LSU wouldn’t be able to hold the lead for long as the Bulldogs were able to respond by tagging Blake Money for two in the home half of the first. Mississippi State would then tie the game in the fourth and chased Money from the game.

When your ace gets the hook early in the game that normally spells trouble. But this LSU bullpen is really starting to develop and the efforts of Trent Vietmeier, Devin Fontenot, Riley Cooper, Eric Reyzelman, and Paul Gervase pitched five innings of shutout ball and only allowed three hits.

The entire staff collected 15 Ks Saturday: Money had five in four innings; Vietmeier struck out a pair in two-thirds of an inning’s work; Fontenot faced four batters and struck out three; Reyzelman got a swinging strikeout to end the seventh with the go-ahead run at the plate; and Gervase worked a five-out save where he struck out four of the five batters he faced.

“All of our relievers came in and did a phenomenal job,” Johnson said. “Everybody who came in had runners on base and left them on base at the end of the inning, which was awesome. They showed a lot of poise in blocking out the crowd and executing the pitch.”

Jordan Thompson then hit what wound up being the game-winning and series-clinching home run in the top of the sixth inning.

LSU tries to complete the sweep on Sunday; first pitch is scheduled for 1:00 and the game can be streamed via SEC Network+.