BATON ROUGE – A collective effort on the mound by the number one ranked team in the country proved to be too much for the McNeese State baseball team, who was blanked by LSU in a 7-0 affair on a rainy Wednesday at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers were able to use 11 different pitchers that prevented McNeese from coring and allowed only five hits in the ballgame. The shutout was the fourth this season for the Cowboys.
McNeese's loss dropped the Pokes to 11-6 on the season and snapped a two-game midweek winning streak while the Tigers extended their overall win streak to 13 consecutive games while improving to 16-1 on the year.
Despite the shutout, the Cowboys recorded five hits with seniors
Andrew Guillotte and
James Cantu leading the way with two hits apiece. Guillotte extended his hitting streak to a current team high 10 games.
Junior
Ethan Stremmel (2-1) took the loss for McNeese after scattering five hits and four runs through three innings of work. He allowed no walks and struck out four batters in the process.
In total, the Cowboys used six pitchers out of the bullpen who combined for six innings and gave up three runs on three hits.
The Tigers took a quick lead in the bottom of the first frame following a two out RBI-single from Chris Chinea that put LSU up on the board with a 1-0 lead.
Cantu collected the only extra base hit for McNeese in the top of the second inning but was stranded after the next two batters were retired in the frame.
LSU took control in the third frame as Alex Bregman belted a three-run bomb over the left field wall that drove in Brad Laird and Danny Zardon to cross the plate and extend the Tigers' lead to a 4-0 score.
In the sixth inning, freshman
Joe Provenzano entered into scoring position after a walk and advance on a single from Guillotte but either were able to plate a run for the Pokes.
The last threat posed by McNeese came in the next frame as the Cowboys advanced runners into scoring position at second and third but were unable to avoid a shutout.
The Tigers scraped across three more runs over a span of four innings with a run in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings.
McNeese returns to league action this weekend as the Cowboys welcome Incarnate Word to Lake Charles for a three game series. The first game is set for Friday, March 13 at 6 o'clock.
LSU 7, McNeese 0 (Mar 11, 2015 at Baton Rouge, La.)----------------------------------------------------------------------
McNeese............. 000 000 000 - 0 5 1 (11-6)
LSU................. 103 110 10X - 7 8 0 (16-1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: McNeese - Stremmel, Ethan; Prejean, Cole(4); Erickson, Tyler(5); Brast, Clay(5);
Briggs, Austin(7); LaPeze, Cory(7); Day, Tyler(8) and Toole, Cameron; LaRosa, Garrett. LSU -
Reynolds; Bouman(3); Norman(4); Bain(5); Devall(6); Strall(7); Newman(7); Cartwright(8);
Bugg(8); Person(9); Stallings(9) and Scivicque; Papierski.
Win-Reynolds(1-0) Loss-Stremmel, Ethan(2-1) T-2:44 A-9684
HR LSU - Bregman (3).
Weather: 71 degrees, light rain
Briggs, A. faced 2 batters in the 7th.
