BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU senior left-hander Jared Poche’ tossed eight more innings of no-hit baseball before finally surrendering his first hit of the season in the ninth inning, and the Tigers’ offense was impressive as well, defeating Maryland 14-0.


The Tigers improved to 6-1 on the year, while Maryland fell to 1-4 with the loss.


Poche’ (2-0, 0.00 ERA), who decided to return for his senior season rather than sign with the San Diego Padres, completed 15 consecutive hitless innings to start the season before an infield single by Maryland centerfielder Zach Jancarski to lead off the ninth finally ended the streak. Poche’ finished the game allowing only one hit and two walks while recording six strikeouts.



He opened his senior season last weekend by tossing a seven-inning no-hitter against Army, which was just the sixth individual no-hitter in LSU baseball history.


Junior righthanded pitcher Tyler Bloom (0-2, 14.40 ERA) was charged with Saturday’s loss for the Terrapins, allowing five earned runs on seven hits in two innings pitched.


“I don’t really know how to explain this,” Poche’ said. “I’m just going out there and executing. Obviously, I have a lot of luck on my side right now, and I hope I continue to have that. The good lord has been blessing me and I’m really thankful for that. I don’t know what to say; this is crazy.”


“Wasn’t that unbelievable?” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “Maryland is a very formidable opponent, but I can remember only one hard-hit ball against Jared today. He was in complete control of the game and turned in another masterful performance.”



The Tigers bats were hot from the start, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Junior Greg Deichmann put LSU on the board by scoring senior Cole Freeman on a sac fly. Freshman Jake Slaughter followed that up with an RBI-single into left field, putting LSU up 2-0.


In the second inning, Brennan Breaux scored from second following a single by Antoine Duplantis and a throwing error by the Maryland center fielder. Then, another sacrifice fly by Deichmann scored Duplantis, giving the Tigers a 4-0 lead.


The LSU bats exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the third inning. Freshman Rankin Woley kicked off the scoring onslaught with an RBI triple in the right-center-field gap. Junior Michael Papierski then drove in Woley with a single down the left-field line.


Following the second triple of the inning, which sophomore Brennan Breaux drove into the right-field corner, Freeman hit an RBI single right up the middle of the field to score Woley and extend the lead to 7-0. Duplantis followed with the third triple of the inning, scoring Freeman from first.


Deichmann added to the lead with an RBI single, and Slaughter capped off the huge inning with a two-RBI double down the left field line, giving the Tigers an 11-0 lead.


In the bottom of the fifth, junior Beau Jordan extended the lead to 12-0 with an RBI single to right field.


The Tigers scored their final two runs of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Freshman Zach Watson scored on a fielder’s choice, and Junior Nick Coomes drove in sophomore Chris Reid to put the Tigers up 14-0.


Slaughter finished the game 3-for-3 with a double and three RBIs; Duplantis was 3-for-3 with a triple, an RBI and three runs; and Deichmann collected three RBIs on the afternoon.


LSU also tied a school record with three triples in the contest; the Tigers last had three triples in a game in 2012 versus Grambling.


“I really like the way our hitters have swung the bats this week, and their approach at the plate has been outstanding,” Mainieri said. “We have to remember, though, that tomorrow is a new day, and the 14 runs and 18 hits we had today won’t carry over until tomorrow. We have to go out there and play another good baseball game tomorrow.”