Bengals get big inning for second night in a row in win over Meridian
Box Score The LSU Eunice baseball team scored 11 runs in the bottom of the third inning to erase an early deficit on their way to a 20-13 win over Meridian Community College Saturday night.
The Bengals (40-11) sent 16 men to the plate in that third inning, tallying eight of their 20 total hits on the night in the frame, taking the lead after entering the inning down 12-4, and an at-bat earlier, being down 9-2 to Meridian (23-23).
Overall, the game was played in just under three and a half hours, with the first three innings taking over two hours alone as the two teams combined to tally 27 runs on 27 hits in those frames.
"We have the huge inning, good at-bats and quality at-bats one after another and we were able to put up that 11-spot. Our guys don't quit. It doesn't matter how runs we get down by or what's going on, we don't quit," head coach Jeff Willis said.
"I thought it was a good, high-scoring college baseball game with two teams that kept fighting each and every pitch. Hats off to our guys, we have a lot of confidence right now. It doesn't matter what goes on, our guys continue to play well and play hard."
Down eight runs entering the bottom of the third, LSU Eunice saw big hits throughout the lineup, as Derek Herrington collected two different RBI singles in the inning, Jordan Romero and Stefan Trosclair each added RBI singles, Brennan Bozeman notched a two-run single and Gabe Roberts and Tyler Chapman each tallied two-run doubles in the big inning.
Including the 11-run bottom of the third inning, the Bengals went on to outscore Meridian 16-1 the remainder of the night.
Bozeman (3 RBIs) and Sam Walley (RBI) both finished with four hits to pace the offense, as Trosclair (4 RBIs, 2 home runs) and Romero (2 RBIs) each collected three hits. Herrington (2 RBIs) and Chapman (2 RBIs, 2 doubles) added two hits each, while Roberts (3 RBIs, double) and Madison Nickens (2 RBIs) tallied a hit apiece.
Nick Lawrence, the fourth Bengal pitcher of the night, earned his third win of the season out of the bullpen after tossing 2 1/3 innings and allowing one run on two hits, while Jevin Huval, the fifth and final pitcher of the night, picked up his first save of the season after pitching the final 3 2/3 innings (1 hit, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts).
Meridian plated five runs on five hits and two Bengal errors in the top of the first inning, but LSU Eunice answered back in the bottom of the first with Trosclair's first homer of the night, a two-run shot, to cut into the lead before the visitors scored four more runs in the top of the second inning, helped by a three-run homer of their own.
The Bengals again cut into the lead with two runs in the bottom of the second via RBI singles from Bozeman and Romero, but Meridian extended the lead to 12-4 in the top of the third inning with three runs on three hits, including a two-run double, to set up the LSU Eunice 11-run bottom of the third.
Meridian plated a single run in the fourth when a two-out walk came around and scored on a wild pitch, but that would turn out to be their final run of the night, as the Bengals added three runs in the sixth on a solo homer from Trosclair and Nickens' two-run single before two final runs scored in the eighth when Walley singled and scored on a passed ball and Roberts brought home a run with his RBI groundout.
LSU Eunice and Meridian wrap up their three-game weekend series Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. first pitch. Tomorrow's game can be seen on Bengal All-Access.
