No. 2 LSU baseball ended its trip to Texas with a perfect 4-0 record and won the Astros Foundation College Classic.
The Tigers posted a 16-4 win at Rice on Wednesday night, then defeated Texas, UL Lafayette and Texas State over the weekend in the Astros Foundation College Classic at Minute Maid Park. Vanderbilt was also 3-0 in the event with wins over UL Lafayette, Houston and Texas; however, the Tigers captured the title by having a greater overall run differential in their victories.
LSU is now ranked ranked No. 2 in the nation by Baseball America and by USA Today, and No. 3 in the country by D1 Baseball this week.
The Tigers’ starting pitchers stole the show over the weekend with all four starters put in some of their best performances this season.
“All four games really we got four quality starts,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “I’m trying to think of a week in my entire college coaching career that you got a quality start by major league baseball standards four games in a row. It really simplifies the game in a lot of ways.”
Freshman left-hander Kade Anderson defeated Rice on Wednesday night in his first collegiate start on the road and his second collegiate start overall. Anderson pitched brilliantly, limiting the Owls to three runs – none earned – on three hits in five innings with one walk and seven strikeouts, firing 82 pitches.
Anderson will get the start in LSU’s game on Wednesday against Southeastern Louisiana.
Junior right-hander Luke Holman fired 5.2 shutout innings Friday in a win over No. 13 Texas in the Astros Foundation College Classic. Holman limited the Longhorns to three hits with one walk and a career-high 12 strikeouts. He threw 91 pitches in the outing, recording 61 pitches for strikes and retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced to complete his outing.
Holman is 3-0 this season with a 0.00 ERA in 18.0 innings. He has recorded two walks and 30 strikeouts, and he’s limiting opponents to a .133 batting average.
Sophomore left-hander Gage Jump was superb in his starting role Saturday versus UL Lafayette, earning the win by limiting the Cajuns to just one hit in five shutout innings with no walks and five strikeouts. Jump threw 76 pitches, 59 for strikes in the outing.
LSU also continued to perform well on the offensive side of the ball during the road games.
Hayden Travinski batted .462 (6-for-13) in four games with three doubles, one homer, six RBI, four walks, two hit-by-pitches and a .632 on-base percentage last week. He was 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBI in Saturday’s win over UL Lafayette. His solo homer in the seventh inning against the Cajuns extended LSU’s lead to 5-3 and proved to be the difference in the Tigers’ 5-4 win. Travinski is hitting .366 this season with four doubles, two homers and 14 RBI.
Freshman second baseman Steven Milam pitched in as well in Houston, as he batted .400 (6-for-15) in four games with one double, four RBI, four walks, and a .500 on-base percentage. He was 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and two runs in Sunday’s win over Texas State. Milam is LSU’s leading hitter this season, batting .405 (15-for-37) with two doubles, 10 RBI, 11 runs, three stolen bases and a .520 on-base percentage.
“I think that we played a winning style of baseball over the last five games,” Johnson said. “I like where we’re at and I really like the response to what we needed to do to improve and the commitment to it.”
LSU’s next game is Wednesday night in Hammond against Southeastern Louisiana. That game will start at 6 p.m.
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