LSU baseball has found some magic before in Hoover, Alabama, the site of the SEC Tournament, and they need a bunch of it this year.
Maybe Tuesday night was the start of something. Despite not having starting pitcher William Schmidt available, three LSU pitchers combined to limit Oklahoma to six hits in a 6-2 victory.
Schmidt was scratched from his start about 20 minutes before first pitch due to back stiffness. But Grant Fontenot, Gavin Guidry, and Deven Sheerin pitched very well, combining to strike out 13 hitters.
LSU had 11 hits, led by Derek Curiel with three, and Steven Milam hit his fourth home run in as many games.
It wasn’t a clean game for the Tigers, who committed two more errors, and there was a bad base-running mistake by John Pearson.
Not only did Schmidt get injured, but freshman designated hitter Omar Serna had to leave the game with a bloody hand after it was stepped on by Oklahoma’s catcher as he scored a run in the 5th inning. Serna’s status for the rest of the tournament is unknown.
This was the first game that LSU ever played with the ABS challenge system, where the pitcher, catcher, and hitter can challenge a ball-strike call.
Of course, in a game that started around 9 PM, a five-minute delay occurred due to a situation in the seventh inning.
It happened when Milam was trying to steal second base on a 3-2 count. As Milam was running towards second base, he pulled up because he heard the umpire call ball four. But the Oklahoma catcher challenged and it was ruled a strike, and Seth Dardar struck out.
Milam was tagged on a close play at second base, and Oklahoma thought it was a strike 'em out and throw 'em out. After a long conference with the umpires, Milam was ruled safe, and the batter was ruled out, which was the correct call. It just took what seemed like forever to figure out.
Tonight, LSU faces sixth-ranked Auburn. The Tigers are expected to start Jake Marciano, but he’s expected to throw only 75 to 80 pitches.
Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast in Hoover, Alabama, so this could be a really late start.
It’s scheduled for an 8 PM start.
