BATON ROUGE, La. –
Antonio Gauthier Jr. homered twice and
Salo Iza added a home run of his own but it wasn't enough as the New Orleans Privateers (28-25) were defeated 7-5 by the #19 LSU Tigers (32-21) on Tuesday at Alex Box Stadium.
The loss was the first on Tuesday absorbed by New Orleans in nine games. The loss also snapped New Orleans' longest winning streak of the season which stood at five.
WIN-LOSS
Matthew Beck pitched two scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win and move to 3-0. The loss went to
Cortlynn Ramirez (1-3).
HOW IT HAPPENED
New Orleans brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the eighth inning. After a first pitch ball from Will Ripoll, the Tigers went to the pen for Zack Hess. He recorded a strikeout to get around the frame. LSU gave Hess two more runs of a lead in the bottom of the eighth.
Gauthier then parked his second home run of the night in the ninth to cut the gap to two. Hess recovered to record two strikeouts though to preserve the victory for LSU.
The Privateers struck first against starter, Devin Fontenot who was getting his first start of the season.
Gaige Howard led off the frame with a single back up the middle. Two batters later, Gauthier parked his seventh home run of the season to left to give New Orleans a 2-0 lead.
LSU answered right back in the bottom of the third. It came a half inning after the Privateers left the bases loaded. After a lead-off walk, a ground ball off the bat of Brock Mathis wound up turning into an error. Two batters later, the bases were loaded for Brandt Broussard who grounded into a double play that brought the first run in.
One of Antoine Duplantis' three hits was an RBI single that followed to tie the game at 2-2. LSU then surged ahead off Daniel Cabrera's two-run homer to left.
New Orleans answered in the fifth with a solo homer by Iza, his sixth of the year. However, LSU came right back in the bottom of the frame with a solo round tripper of their own. This one came off the bat of Duplantis, his 10
th of the year to extend the Tigers lead to 5-3.
INSIDE THE BOX
The multi-homer game by Gauthier was the first by a Privateer this year and the first since
Pearce Howard (Apr. 15, 2018).
Wade Raburn stole two bases. New Orleans outhit LSU 13-10 on the evening.
Jorge Tejeda caught his 10
th runner trying to steal this year.
NEXT UP
The Privateers will be in Nacogdoches as they try to fight their way into the Southland tournament. They will open the series against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday with a first pitch set for 6 p.m.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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