LSU reserves get their chance againsr Stephen F. Austin
Published 7:51 pm Tuesday, March 5, 2013
BATON ROUGE — LSU got RBIs from seven players en route to a 9-2 nonconference victory over Stephen F. Austin Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (11-1) will host Sacred Heart at 6:30 p.m. today.
“We just kind of grinded this one out,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “We gave some of the young guys the opportunity to start tonight, and I was very pleased with the way they responded. It was great to see Andrew Stevenson get his first career homer and Chris Chinea crushed a ball into left-center field for a double. I thought (junior left fielder) Sean McMullen really battled at the plate and as well and delivered a key RBI base hit.”
Stevenson (2-for-3), a freshman, hit his first career home run over the right-field wall in the third inning, increasing the Tigers’ lead to 3-0.
The Tigers scored the first two runs in the second inning on an RBI single by Mason Katz and a sacrifice fly from second baseman JaCoby Jones.
LSU added two runs after Stevenson’s homer with an RBI double from designated hitter Raph Rhymes and an RBI single from Katz, increasing the lead to 5-0.
Rhymes (1-for-2) and Katz (2-for-4) extended their hitting streaks to 10 games.
SFA (3-7) chipped into the Tigers’ lead with an RBI single from Zach Marberry in the fourth inning.
LSU widened the gap in the sixth with an RBI double from Chinea, followed by an RBI single from McMullen.
Christian Ibarra added an insurance run in the seventh with an RBI single to center field.
Reliever Kevin Berry (2-0) earned the win with two scoreless innings.
SFA starter Justin Choate (1-1) suffered the loss, giving up five earned runs on five hits in five innings.
