Tigers Need 13 Innings to Defeat the Roadrunners on Thompson's Walk Off Home Run...

Photo By: LSUsports.net

3/14/2021
By: Michael Lanclos
Da Boot Sports


   BATON ROUGE, LA: The LSU Tigers would find themselves were in a dog fight with UT San Antonio on Saturday night, but would manage to somehow pull off a late dramatic, walk off victory in the bottom of the 13th inning at Alex Box Stadium.  Freshmen Jordan Thompson would hit a solo homerun to give the Tigers a huge 10-9 win.
   With the win the Tigers improved to 13-3 while UTSA would drop to 5-5.  The Tigers had the lead early in the game that they would shockingly lose late in the contest, forcing them to dig deep, and battle back twice to avoid an upset. 
   UTSA also never quit, as they kept putting pressure on LSU until the Tigers would find the will to win.

   
   The game would stay scoreless until the bottom of the 3rd inning as Alex Milazzo would lace a single up the middle and then would score after Dylan Crews would hit a shot off the left field wall for the RBI. 
   Tre Morgan would then take a hit by pitch to reach base.  Crews and Morgan would later score off of a 3 run home run to left field by Cade Doughty. 
   At the end of three innings, LSU would lead 4-0.
   LSU starting pitcher Landon Marceaux pitched a strong 6 innings of scoreless baseball as he would
strike out 11 Roadrunner batters as he would remain in command throughout his appearance. 


   In the eighth inning UTSA's Joshua Lamb would hit a single to right field, then would advance to second base on a fielding error. Griffin Paxton would the come through with a single setting up Jonathan Tapia at the plate who would single to right center field scoring Lamb.  Kyle Bergeron would single to right field collecting an RBI as Paxton would score.  Dylan Rock would then single to center field which would allow Tapia to cross the plate cutting the LSU lead to 4-3.  The Roadrunners would then load the bases with two outs. Shane Sirdashney would strike out looking at a pitch from Alex Brady angering UTSA head coach Pat Hallmark who would get tossed from the game after arguing the strikeout. LSU held a slim 4-3 lead after 8 innings. 


   Starting the 9th, UTSA's Jonathan Lamb would reach first base after an error on the LSU infield at third base.  Griffin Paxton would then double to left center scoring Lamb.
   The Tigers would be unable to score in the bottom of the 9th, as we would head to extra innings tied at 4-4. 
   

   In the 10th inning LSU would need three pitchers, Trent Vietmeier, Jacob Hasty and Michael Fowler to   shut down the UTSA offense and get out of the top of the inning, but not before Dylan Rock would take a walk.  Austin Ochoa would then hammer a pitch to deep left field for a Roadrunner two run home run.  Shane Sirdashney then would score tagging from third base during a sacrifice fly from Jonathan Tapia to make it a 7-4 Roadrunner advantage. 
   In the bottom of the 10th the Tigers would rally back in full force as Mitchell Sanford would lace a single to left field center.  Dylan Crews would then take a base on balls. 
   There would be a change in pitching as UTSA would send Reece Easterling to the mound.  He would strike out his first batter.  But Cade Doughty would step up and hit a three run home run bomb to left center field to tie the game at 7-7.  Cade Beloso would then nail the ball to left centerfield, bounce it off the wall for a triple, but would be left stranded to end the inning.


   After a scoreless 11th inning, we would head to the 12th where LSU pitcher Blake Money would surrender a single to left field to Austin Ochoa.  Money would intentionally walk Paxton to try and set up a force out.       But UTSA's Jonathan Tapia would hit a double to left field center scoring Paxton and Ochoa to give
the Roadrunners the advantage again by a score of 9-7. 
   LSU would come to bat down by 2 runs.  Tre' Morgan would lead off roping a double to right center field.  After Cade Doughty would strike out swinging,  Will Safford would step in as the dh to hit.  He would hit into a ground out, but pushing Morgan to 3rd base. . 
   Gavin Dugas would then come up with the big hit, sending the ball to deep left center field for a two run home run scoring Morgan and tying the game at 9-9.


   In the top of the 13th inning, UTSA would go down quickly. 
  With LSU coming up to bat, UTSA would change pitchers again. This time John Chomko would come to the mound.  He would force Zach Arnold into a ground out.   Jordan Thompson would step to the plate, and would hit a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left center field to clinch the win for the Tigers in walk off fashion.


   “This was a crazy game, and let me say first of all that UTSA has an outstanding ball club,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “There are lot of things that happened in the game that cause us concern, but the overarching theme of tonight is the resiliency of our team. They just never gave up, never quit. Even though it looked like we were done a couple of times, our guys kept battling and we got some big swings. If you’re going to spend this much time out at the ballpark, you might as well end up winning.”
   

   Blake Money would earn the win as he pitched 2 innings, allowing two runs to register his first win of the season.  LSU would use 11 pitchers in the contest as Paul Mainieri would continue to test his bull pen before the start of conference play next weekend. 
   LSU returns Sunday afternoon to play UTSA in 'The Box' at 1:00pm as they will try to sweep the series.

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