Alex Box Stadium was buzzing as the LSU Baseball team kicked off their season against the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons. The Tigers entered the season with sky high expectations, opening the year as the third ranked team. On Friday afternoon, the Tigers gave the LSU Faithful plenty to cheer for with a dominant performance.
Kade Anderson set the tone for the day in the top of the first inning with a 1-2-3 inning striking out a pair and fielding his position for an out. When LSU got up to the plate, they instantly jumped on Purdue Fort Wayne, as a Chris Stanfield leadoff triple led to LSU scoring a run on a sacrifice fly which ended up being an RBI Error for Jared Jones, Daniel Dickinson then drove in Jones and Josh Pearson before scoring on an error and Steven Milam drove in Jake Brown giving the Tigers a 5-0 lead in the first inning.
In the second inning, Derek Curiel got his first hit as an LSU Tiger with a perfectly placed punt and small ball paid off as Daniel Dickinson added another pair of RBIs with a Double.
The top of the fourth inning was the first time Kade Anderson faced trouble after allowing a pair of singles to start the inning. Anderson dialed it in and struck out two ang got one to fly out which was massive to see from the Tigers' ace. The Tigers would tack another run onto their lead in the bottom of the 4th as singles from Chris Stanfield and Derek Curiel led to an sacrifice RBI for Josh Pearson
Kade Anderson finished off his first start of the year with a dazzling performance pitching five innings allowing just four hits with one walk while striking out 8 in a scoreless showing. Michael Braswell II would add on an insurance run doubling to drive in Luis Hernandez in the bottom half of the inning. In the 6th the Tigers would tack on a pair of runs as Josh Pearson doubled home Jared Jones and Daniel Dickinson singled in Ethan Frey for his 5th RBI of the game.
The massive lead allowed Jay Johnson to play some of his promising young freshmen and they showed out. John Pearson doubled on his first collegiate swing and worked a bases loaded walk for his first RBI, Cade Arrambide and Mikey Ryan worked walks, Ryan Costello drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and Mic Paul singled.
While the offense gave the Tigers enough offense to overcome a rough day pitching, the Tigers didn't need it. Freshman Casan Evans was electric in relief of Kade Anderson pitching two scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Transfer Jacob Mayers followed up Evans pitching one inning striking out a pair. Cooper Williams finished the game off pitching one inning striking out the side giving the Tigers the win.
The Tigers looked far different than the team we saw last season as this group will be far more balanced. The Tigers scored 14 runs without hitting a home run as they put together stretches of base hits while they were aggressive running the bases.
The LSU Baseball team is back in action against Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday Morning at 11:00 AM as the game was moved up two hours due to expected rain.