No, I’m not talking about Prince, but there is a possibility that doves were crying with all of the home runs hit at “The Box” today.
A couple of stats before we get into the meat of things: the Tigers had a 12-inning stretch of scoring at least one run per inning that ended in the bottom of the eighth in a 17-8 win over Maine in Game 2 on Saturday. Two Tigers were one hit away from hitting for the cycle, Cade Doughty and Dylan Crews.
The Tigers wasted no time getting it going this afternoon as Doughty hit a three-run homer in the first inning that scored Tre’ Morgan and Crews. That was followed up by a Gavin Dugas RBI single to make the lead 4-0 Tigers after one inning.
After the Black Bears were retired silently in the top of the second, Brayden Jobert continued his hot start with a sacrifice fly for an RBI to extend the lead to 5-0. Maine finally got on the board in the top of the third against the Tigers starting pitcher, Ma’Khail Hilliard.
It is a common trend in the game of baseball that if the leadoff hitter gets on base, most of the time they wind up scoring. That is exactly what happened in the third for Hilliard. A hit by pitch, a single, and a double, and just like that, Maine started trying to claw their way back into the game.
The Tigers then proceeded to get two of those three runs back in the bottom of the third with a Tre Morgan sacrifice fly and a Dylan Crews double to extend the lead to 7-3 after three innings. Jack Merrifield got involved in the scoring spree with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to make it 8-3 Tigers after four innings.
Maine got an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning that chased Hilliard from the mound. Hilliard worked the first four innings and was charged with five runs, (three earned runs), four hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. Javen Coleman (1-0) came in from the bullpen and ended up earning the win for the Tigers after giving up one run on one hit, no walks, and three strikeouts over three innings.
Those two runs in the top of the fifth trimmed the lead to 8-5. That’s when things got out of hand.
Doughty hit an RBI double, Jobert hit a two-RBI double, and Merrifield hit a two-RBI single to make it 13-5 at the end of five innings. Maine hit a solo homer in the top of the sixth and then came the arrival of Jacob Berry to the fun.
Berry hit his first homer as a Tiger and that was followed by a Crews triple and another Doughty RBI to make it 15-6 after six innings. Then, in the bottom of the seventh, Berry was back at it again with a two-run blast to right field that made it 17-6. Maine scored two in the top of the eighth inning to make it 17-8, the ultimate final score.
LSU scored 17 runs on 17 hits while giving up eight runs on nine hits. For those keeping count, that’s 30 runs on 29 hits in two games. You would think Baton Rouge was located on the equator with how hot the Tiger bats are. LSU wraps up the series Sunday against Maine with the first pitch at 1 p.m CST as it looks to complete the sweep.
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