LSU Defeats Jackson St., 11-7, Wins Baton Rouge Regional Opener

Kurt McCune  The LSU Tigers opened up NCAA Regional play with an 11-7 win over the Jackson St. Tigers, in the first day of play in the Baton Rouge Regional at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field on Friday.Jackson St. grabbed the lead in the top half of the first inning, scoring two runs off of LSU starter Ryan Eades. Charles Tillery doubled, scoring Anako Knowles and Ethan Bright, giving Jackson St. a quick 2-0 lead.

Eades lasted only 2.1 innings, before giving way to Kirk McCune.

LSU responded in the bottom half of the first inning, scoring two runs off of Jackson St. starter Alexander Juday. Sean McMullen singled, stole second, advanced to third on a fly ball off the bat of Tyler Moore, and then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Mason Katz, before Alex Bregman, who reached after getting hit by a pitch one batter earlier, scored on a error, knotting-up the game, 2-2.

From there, it was basically all LSU, as the Tigers went on to score ten unanswered runs, before Jackson St. made things somewhat interesting over the last couple of innings.

LSU grabbed the lead in the bottom half of the third inning, plating two runs, when McMullen singled, then later scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Katz, before Christian Ibarra doubled, driving home Moore, who had singled home earlier in the inning, making the score, 4-2, LSU.

McMullen helped LSU extend their lead to in the bottom half of the fourth inning, driving home JaCoby Jones, who had led off the inning with a single, with a sacrifice fly, to make it 5-2, before Chris Sciambra singled home Andrew Stevenson, to give LSU a 6-2 advantage.

Those two runs inning chased Juday, who was relieved by Brandon Gregory, but he promptly served up a two-run home run to Katz, scoring Sciambra in front of him, giving LSU a four-run inning, and a 8-2 lead.

LSU continued to pile it on, scoring two more runs in the bottom half of inning number six, courtesy of a two-run homer by Jared Foster, making the score 10-2.

Jackson St. got closer in the top half of the eighth inning, scoring three runs off of LSU's Kevin Berry, before Berry was relieved by Nate Fury, to make the score 10-5.

LSU added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning, with Katz crossing the plate on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Foster, to extend their lead to 11-5.

Jackson St. refused to go away however, scoring two runs off of Hunter Newman, to close the gap to 11-7, before Joey Bourgeios, the sixth LSU pitcher of the day, came in to nail down the four-run victory.

McMullen led LSU at the plate, going 3-for-4, with two runs scored, and an RBI, while Katz finished with four runs driven in.

McCune (4-1) recorded the win for LSU, tossing 4.2 shutout innings, while Juday (7-5) suffered the loss for Jackson St.

With the win, LSU improved to 53-9 on the year, while Jackson St. dropped to 34-21.

LSU advances to winners bracket play, Saturday evening at 7 pm, while Jackson St. falls into an elimination game on Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock.

View the game box score.