Dominant Anderson carries LSU to championship round
The pitching matchup was totally in LSU’s favor for the winners’ bracket finals of the Baton Rouge Regional on Saturday night.
The Tigers were starting Kade Anderson, who is projected to be chosen in the upper half of Major League Baseball’s draft this summer.
Dallas Baptist was starting Micah Bucknam, who left the LSU program after two seasons because he simply was not going to be a part of its pitching rotation.
The Patriots chose a pitcher to beat the Tigers in the most important game of a four-team tournament at a jammed-packed Alex Box Stadium who allowed 17 runs in 16 innings in two years with them.
The results were as expected.
Dallas Baptist hitters had no chance against Anderson, while Bucknam could not get through three innings. LSU jumped out to an early lead on the way to a 12-0 victory over the Patriots.
The victory sends the Tigers into Sunday night’s championship round. On Sunday afternoon, Dallas Baptist will meet Little Rock to determine which team gets another chance at LSU. The Trojans beat Rhode Island 22-10 in the first game Saturday.
The Saturday night game revolved around the two pitchers. Anderson allowed a runner past first base once. In the second, Anderson issued a walk and gave up a single. After a strikeout, leftfielder Derek Curiel made a sliding catch and doubled the runner off first.
The Patriots never threatened again against Anderson, who allowed four hits and struck out ten batters. Starters Anderson and Anthony Eyanson have thrown 14 scoreless innings in the regional. DJ Primeaux, Jacob Meyers and William Schmidt completed the shutout.
Bucknam, who entered the game with a 6-1 record and 4.37 ERA, got off to a good start by retiring the first two hitters. Then, the moment began to get too big for Bucknam. He walked Daniel Dickinson and hit Jake Brown. Ethan Frey followed with a two-run double.
In the second inning, Bucknam allowed an opposite-field solo home run to nine-hole hitter Chris Stanfield. By the way, Stanfield’s homer was his first of the season. Bucknam’s night ended one inning later although all three of those runs were unearned.
A one-out throwing error by DBU shortstop Luke Heefner led to the three runs. Frey, who reached safely on the miscue, advanced to third on a single by Steven Milam. Luis Hernandez’ squeeze bunt drove in Frey.
To make matters worse for the Patriots, Hernandez was safe at first because Bucknam did not catch the throw from first baseman Chayton Krauss. After a fly out, Bucknam’s night ended after a run-scoring single by Stanfield.
Amazingly, Dallas Baptist relieved Bucknam with No. 2 starter James Ellwanger. Using the second starter in the rotation while in a five-run deficit makes no sense. Ellwanger gave up a RBI single by Curiel to close the scoring in the third.
LSU tacked on another run against Ellwanger in the fifth. Milam singled and Hernandez was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Milam advanced to third on Michael Braswell’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Stanfield ground ball to shortstop.
In the seventh, Hernandez followed two walks with a run-scoring single. The Tigers then successfully executed a double steal with Milam scoring from third base on the front end. LSU added three more runs in the eighth.
The Tigers need one victory in the championship round to advance to the super regionals. If LSU loses Sunday night, a winner-take-all game will be played Monday. However, it certainly seems that no team in this regional can beat the Tigers once, much less twice.
LSU STARTERS
Derek Curiel: 1-for-3, 1 RBI
Jared Jones: 0-for-5
Daniel Dickinson: 0-for-3, 1 run scored
Jake Brown: 0-for-5, 1 run scored
Ethan Frey: 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, 3 runs scored
Steven Milam: 2-for-2, 4 runs scored
Luis Hernandez: 1-for-2, 2 RBIs, 1 run scored
Michael Braswell: 0-for-3
Chris Stanfield: 3-for-4, 3 RBIs, 1 run scored, 1 HR
LSU BENCH
Cade Arrambide: 1-for-1, 1 run scored
Ashton Larson: 0-for-0, 1 RBI
LSU PITCHERS
Kade Anderson: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 11 K
DJ Primeaux: .1 IP, 2 BB
Jacob Meyers: .2 IP, 1 BB, 1 K
William Schmidt: 1 IP, 3 K
LSU Baseball Cutter & Buck Virtue Eco Micro Stripe Polo
from: Alumni Hall
