Menu
  • SEC Country Home
  • Football
    • Football News
    • 2017 Schedule
    • SEC Country Live
  • Recruiting
    • 2018 Recruits
    • 2019 Recruits
    • Recruiting Articles
  • Basketball
    • Basketball Articles
    • 2017-2018 Schedule
  • SEC West
    • Alabama
    • Arkansas
    • Auburn
    • LSU
    • Mississippi State
    • Ole Miss
    • Texas A&M
  • SEC East
    • Florida
    • Georgia
    • Kentucky
    • Missouri
    • South Carolina
    • Tennessee
    • Vanderbilt
  • SEC News
  • Partners
  • SEC
    • All SEC News
    • Alabama Crimson Tide
    • Arkansas Razorbacks
    • Auburn Tigers
    • Florida Gators
    • Georgia Bulldogs
    • Kentucky Wildcats
    • LSU Tigers
    • Ole Miss Rebels
    • Mississippi State Bulldogs
    • Missouri Tigers
    • South Carolina Gamecocks
    • Tennessee Volunteers
    • Texas A&M Aggies
    • Vanderbilt Commodores
  • ACC
    • All ACC News
    • Boston College Eagles
    • Clemson Tigers
    • Duke Blue Devils
    • Florida State Seminoles
    • Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
    • Louisville Cardinals
    • Miami Hurricanes
    • NC State Wolfpack
    • North Carolina Tar Heels
    • Notre Dame Fighting Irish
    • Pitt Panthers
    • Syracuse Orange
    • Virginia Cavaliers
    • Virginia Tech Hokies
    • Wake Forest Demon Deacons
  • Big Ten
    • All Big Ten News
    • Illinois Fighting Illini
    • Indiana Hoosiers
    • Iowa Hawkeyes
    • Maryland Terrapins
    • Michigan Wolverines
    • Michigan State Spartans
    • Minnesota Golden Gophers
    • Nebraska Cornhuskers
    • Northwestern Wildcats
    • Ohio State Buckeyes
    • Penn State Nittany Lions
    • Purdue Boilermakers
    • Rutgers Scarlet Knights
    • Wisconsin Badgers
  • Big 12
    • All Big 12 News
    • Baylor Bears
    • Iowa State Cyclones
    • Kansas Jayhawks
    • Kansas State Wildcats
    • Oklahoma Sooners
    • Oklahoma State Cowboys
    • TCU Horned Frogs
    • Texas Longhorns
    • Texas Tech Red Raiders
    • West Virginia Mountaineers
  • Pac-12
    • All Pac-12 News
    • Arizona Wildcats
    • Arizona State Sun Devils
    • Cal Golden Bears
    • Colorado Buffaloes
    • Oregon Ducks
    • Oregon State Beavers
    • Stanford Cardinal
    • UCLA Bruins
    • USC Trojans
    • Utah Utes
    • Washington Huskies
    • Washington State Cougars
LSU 2018 Recruits
23
Signed
0
Commits
See all recruits
news-article-icon
Eye on the Tigers

Bobby Wolfe would make huge exception for LSU; 5-star DT Ishmael Sopsher talks Tigers

Sam Spiegelman - Posted: 4 hours ago
news-article-icon
Bayou Bengal Briefing

Where LSU's stars are projected to be picked in 2018 NFL Draft

Nick Suss - Posted: 16 hours ago

LSU baseball: Tigers launch 3 leadoff home runs in dominant win over Tennessee

Left fielder Beau Jordan led off Friday's game with a home run to left field, his sixth of the 2018 season.
LSU Athletics
Nick Suss
Nick Suss
@nicksuss
Posted 2 weeks ago

BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU baseball team didn’t just beat Tennessee on Friday night. The Tigers ambushed the Vols.

Behind leadoff home runs in each of the first three innings, LSU rode a power surge and another dominant performance from sophomore right-hander Zack Hess to a 9-3 victory over the Volunteers. With the win, LSU improved to 22-13 on the season and 7-6 in SEC play while Tennessee dropped to 21-15, 5-8 in SEC play.

B1: Goodbye baseball!!! @beaujordan24 launches the first pitch he sees to get the Tigers on the board early!

💻: https://t.co/0cjC3BpcOx pic.twitter.com/0Pb756nasR

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) April 14, 2018

Batting in an unfamiliar position as LSU’s leadoff hitter, left fielder Beau Jordan turned on the first pitch an LSU batter saw on Friday for a solo home run, his team-leading sixth of 2018. Which, according to LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri, was exactly the plan.

“I told him when we were stretching today that he was leading off,” Mainieri said. “And I said ‘I’d really like to see you hit the first pitch of the game for a home run.’ Then he did it. So I turned to all the other guys and said it’s finally nice to get some players that do as they’re told, ya know?”

The Tigers tacked on two more in the first via an RBI single from second baseman Austin Bain and a double play grounded into by designated hitter Daniel Cabrera. This set up sophomore third baseman Jake Slaughter to lead off the second inning and, like Jordan before him, Slaughter planted the first pitch of the inning into the centerfield camera well for a home run.

Furthering the deja vu, LSU added two more runs in the second inning as well, with right fielder Antoine Duplantis and Bain driving in a run apiece to extend LSU baseball’s lead to 6-0.

RELATED: Tigers shut out No. 25 Louisiana Tech

Catcher Hunter Feduccia capped off the early-game theatrics, depositing a 2-0 pitch into the right-field bleachers for the Tigers’ third consecutive leadoff home run. Not to be forgotten, Slaughter followed Feduccia with his second home run of the night, a 107.4 mph laser over the centerfield wall, to give LSU an 8-0 lead and chase Tennessee starting pitcher Garrett Crochet from the game. In all, LSU stung Crochet with 8 runs on 10 hits and 4 home runs.

“We just kept having great at-bats after great at-bats,” Mainieri said. “I was so happy for Jake Slaughter. Those balls that he hit, you don’t see to many of them hit out at this ballpark at that spot. He hit two out there and they were hit about as hard as a ball can possibly be hit. The lineup worked out well for us tonight and hopefully we’ll figure it out for tomorrow.”

Friday was the first time LSU hit four home runs against an SEC opponent in nearly five years. The Tigers last achieved the feat on May 6, 2012 against Ole Miss. According to LSU statistician Todd Politz, LSU hadn’t led off three consecutive innings with a home run since the 2008 postseason versus UC Irvine and North Carolina.

#LSU hasn't had leadoff HR's in 1st-2nd-3rd dating to 1997 (will require further research). However, the Tigers had leadoff HRs in 3-straight innings in 2008: 8th inning v. UC Irvine (NCAASR) then 1st/2nd v. North Carolina (CWS).

— Todd Politz (@tpolitz) April 14, 2018

For Slaughter, breaking out Friday night was huge. The sophomore came into Friday night batting .203 and slugging .291 with 2 home runs in 2018. With his two home runs against Tennessee, Slaughter surpassed his freshman year total with 4 on the season and became the first LSU baseball player to homer twice in a game since Michael Papierski in the College World Series against Oregon State a season ago.

Pitching Change: Chase Wallace replaces Garrett Crochet on the mound.

While Wallace warms up, check out Jake Slaughter's second dinger of the night!

💻: https://t.co/0cjC3BpcOx pic.twitter.com/poS9fp2mrQ

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) April 14, 2018

Slaughter wasn’t the only Tigers hitter to have a productive evening. Bain set new career-highs with 4 hits and 3 RBI, while Duplantis added 3 hits, one of which being his team-leading fourth triple of 2018.

“I was just seeing ball, hitting ball,” Bain said. “I wasn’t thinking. I was just kind of looking for fastball.”

Bain led off the fourth inning for the Tigers with a single up the middle, ending the team’s streak of leadoff home runs. After the game, Bain admitted he wanted to continue the streak, saying he turned to Cabrera before his at-bat and said “You think I can do it?” Unfortunately, Bain had to settle for his third hit in four innings.

As for Zack Hess…

Hess received as much run support as he’ll ever get on Friday, but it’s not as if he needed much of it. Hess allowed 3 hits in 7 innings, striking out 8 batters with just 1 walk en route to his sixth win of the season. The outing lowered Hess’ season ERA to 3.71, marking the first time this year that Hess has ended a game with an ERA below 4.00.

The hard-throwing right-hander excelled in the middle innings, retiring eight Volunteers in a row between the end of the fourth inning and beginning of the seventh inning. Five of those eight outs came via strikeouts, all of which consecutively and four of which of the swinging variety. With his eight strikeouts, Hess brought his strikeouts per nine innings mark to 11.48.

“There were a couple of moments throughout the game where I was kind of feeling a little bit for some things,” Hess said. “But I think overall I just had pretty good feel for everything. I was just taking that mindset from last week against Texas A&M and carrying it into this game, trying to attack a little bit more and not trying to strike everybody out. I think it paid off.”

In three home starts against SEC opponents this season, Hess has pitched 19.2 innings, allowing 4 earned runs (1.83 ERA) and striking out 26 batters.

Box score

lsu baseball

What’s next for LSU baseball?

LSU and Tennessee return to action on Saturday for Game 2 of this three-game series. The scheduled start time has been moved back to 8 p.m. CT in anticipation of heavy rainfall throughout the day. The game will be available to stream online via WatchESPN.

NEXT Plenty remains unresolved in battle for LSU’s starting running back spot
More from:
Nick Suss
  • Flush it: After being swept, LSU baseball looks to rebound this weekend at Ole Miss
  • Where LSU’s stars are projected to be picked in 2018 NFL Draft
  • LSU baseball: How to watch, stream, listen to game vs. Ole Miss (April 26, 2018)
  • Best NFL draft fits for LSU’s Derrius Guice, DJ Chark, other future pros
  • Who is DJ Chark? 5 things to know about LSU’s wide receiver

Share

Get the latest LSU News

Don't miss breaking news!
Sign up for the SEC Country LSU Newsletter!

Official Partners

Latest SEC News

  • Alabama
    2018 NFL Draft: Atlanta Falcons select Calvin Ridley
  • South Carolina
    NFL Draft 2018: South Carolina TE Hayden Hurst selected No. ...
  • South Carolina
    2018 NFL Draft: 5 things to know about Baltimore Ravens draf...
  • 21 mins ago
    SEC
    NFL mock draft 2018: First-round projections, top players, o...
  • 30 mins ago
    Alabama
    2018 NFL Draft: Rashaan Evans taken by the Tennessee Titans
  • 32 mins ago
    Alabama
    2018 NFL Draft: 5 things to know about new Tennessee Titans ...
  • 39 mins ago
    Arkansas
    LOOK: Frank Ragnow and former position coach Sam Pittman emb...
  • 41 mins ago
    Arkansas
    Who is Frank Ragnow? 5 things to know about the Detroit Lion...
  • 41 mins ago
    Arkansas
    2018 NFL Draft: Arkansas center Frank Ragnow selected No. 20...
  • 51 mins ago
    Alabama
    Old Josh Allen tweets about AJ McCarron’s wife, Kather...

Follow Us

  • © 2018 Cox Media Group
    • About DieHards Network
    • Advertise With Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Visitor Agreement
    • DawgNation
    • Land of 10
    • DieHards
  • Feedback
SportsRadar logo
The Diehards Network