By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Freshman catcher Omar Serna Jr. of Houston may not come out of the LSU lineup for an extended period of time.
With the Tigers trailing 4-2 in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and their slumping offense needing a bolt of lightning, Serna launched a grand slam to left field to give the Tigers a 6-4 lead. And LSU went on to an 8-4 win.
“I think Jay Johnson just exhaled for the first time this game,” LSU Radio Network play-by-play announcer Jeff Palermo said as Serna rounded the bases.
The Tigers (13-5) had trailed 4-1 after three innings following two straight losses and four over their previous five games.
Jake Brown made Johnson breathe even easier in the eighth when he hit his ninth home run of the season – a two-run shot to right-center field for the 8-4 lead with his ninth of the season. Derek Curiel led the inning off with a walk.
LSU now enters Southeastern Conference play at Vanderbilt (11-7) on Friday (6 p.m., SEC Network+). The Saturday 7 p.m. game will be on the SEC Network, and the 3 p.m. series finale will be on ESPN2.
Reliever Deven Sheerin (1-0) picked up the with two and a third innings of relief from the fifth to the seventh innings, allowing no runs on one hit with a walk, a hit batsman and four strikeouts.
And left-hander Santiago Garcia, a junior transfer from Oregon, was very impressive when he replaced Sheerin with two on and one out with the Tigers clinging to their 6-4 lead in the seventh. Garcia struck out Connor Capece after a challenge following that changed a hit batsman to the strikeout because Capece intentionally let himself be hit. Then Garcia fanned Isaac Wachsmann to end the inning.
Garcia struck out the first batter of the eighth inning as well and added his fourth strikeout to end the inning. He earned his first save of the season with two and two-thirds innings of work, allowing no runs on one hit with the four strikeouts.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Brown doubled and scored on Steven Milam’s RBI single. But Creighton (5-8) took a 2-1 lead in the second off LSU starter Reagan Ricken, who allowed two hits and two runs with a walk and a strikeout and didn’t record an out in the second.
The Bluejays extended that to 4-1 in the third when reliever Ethan Plog walked two batters and hit another. Mavrick Rizy relieved and allowed a two-run single.
LSU drew within 4-2 in the fourth when Tanner Reaves singled and scored an unearned run on a grounder by Brown to shortstop.
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