LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri and the 11,000 plus fans that took advantage of perfect weather to pile into Alex Box Stadium for Friday’s season opener against Cincinnati learned one thing about Mainieri’s revamped 2016 team.
And that’s with seven new starters and a freshmen-filled depth chart, you may not know the names of the players yet.
But you will very soon, especially if they keep showing the same resolve demonstrated in the Tigers’ 6-5 victory in 12 innings over the Bearcats in the first of a three-game series.
LSU had just eight hits, but three were in extra innings with two in the Tigers’ last-at bat. Pitching was spotty from the first three juniors that took the mound until junior No 4, reliever Alden Cartwright, retired six straight Cincy batters in the top of the 11th and 12th innings. His two innings of shutout pitching gave the Tigers a chance to win while not having to play catch-up.
Appropriately, the player who sent the game to extra innings for LSU with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the 9th for a 3-3 tie was also the guy who ended the game.
After dealing with a series of breaking balls that Cincy reliever David Orndorff tried to sneak over the outside of the plate, LSU reserve catcher Jordan Romero got just enough of the end of his bat on an Orndorff breaking ball to bloop a game-winning single just over the outstretched hands of Bearcats’ first baseman Connor McVey.
It was an unforgettable way for Romero, a junior college transfer from LSU-Eunice and a former Baton Rouge Catholic High star who was the state Class 5A player of the year in 2013, to start his Division 1 career.
A game-tying RBI single in his very first LSU at-bat: “Being from Baton Rouge, you grow up watching guys do that, so it was pretty awesome to get to do it myself,” Romero said.
A game-winning RBI in his third-ever LSU at bat: “The way the game was going with us hitting the ball hard and they were catching it, it was kind appropriate for a little Judy to drop in and win the game,” he added.
Mainieri, now 11-0 in season openers at LSU and narrowly avoiding the Tigers’ first season opening loss since 2001, was extremely pleased with his team’s pluck to set the stage for a little luck to close a four-hour evening.
“We had our backs against the wall, but somehow we found a way,” said Mainieri, whose team battled back from deficits of 1-0, 3-1 and 5-3. “We hit an awful lot of hard balls for first-year, first game players. We got a fortuitous hit off the end of the bat there at the end, but that’s how this game is. The inning before Beau Jordan crushed one that I thought should have won the game and it didn’t (it was caught). I’ll take the win. It was a hard-fought victory.”
Seven Tigers’ newbies – Romero and six true freshmen, including three starters – accounted for five hits, three runs and six RBIs.
Besides Romero, here’s the freshmen roll call of who did what in their debuts:
Starting rightfielder Antoine Duplantis: The son of two former LSU athletes (all-American pole vaulter Greg and volleyball and heptathlon standout Helena) drove in the Tigers’ first run of the season with a RBI single in the fourth inning. Then in the seventh, he gunned out Cincy’s Devin Wenzel at the plate with a perfect one-hop throw to catcher Michael Papierinski.
“There were a lot of emotions going on after I hit that single,” Duplantis said. “But I come from an athletic family with a strong mentality. I don’t get scared. I own up to the challenge.
Starting third baseman Cole Freeman: Drew a two-out walk in the ninth that brought Romero to the plate to slap his game-extending RBI single. He also had a game-tying RBI at 5-5 when he was hit by a pitch with two outs in the 10th.
Starting shortstop Trey Dawson: Had a flawless night in the field with two putouts and three assists.
Reserve third baseman O’Neal Lochridge: Got hit by pitch to a keep a two-out rally alive that resulted in two LSU runs in the 10th for a 5-5 tie. Singled to leadoff the Tigers’ 12th and scored the game-winning run on Romero’s RBI single.
Reserve first baseman Brady Wofford: Started LSU’s two-run, two-out 10th inning with an RBI single and scored the game-tying run when Freeman was hit by a pitch.
Pinch-runner Brennan Breaux: Scored the game-tying run in the 9th off Romero’s single.
String all those clutch plays together and you get an opening win admired by a veteran such as Cartwright, who was credited with the victory. He mowed down the Bearcats in order in the final two innings after Cincy grabbed a 5-3 lead in the 10th with two runs and two hits off LSU relievers Hunter Newman and Parker Bugg.
“Tying this game up three times and then winning is a really good win for an inexperienced team,” said Cartwright, who struck out two. “It was nice to let them see we can come back without banging the ball out of the park. We just have to grind away.”
