LSU Athletic Communications
BATON ROUGE — LSU pounded out 19 hits in a 13-7 victory over Oregon State, winning the NCAA Division I Tournament’s Baton Rouge Regional and advancing to the Super Regional round for the 16th time in program history Monday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
The Tigers improved to 46-15. The Beavers dropped to 41-20.
LSU, the No. 5 national seed, will host the winner of the Lexington Regional, either No. 12 Kentucky or Indiana, in the Super Regional.
LSU left-hander Griffin Herring (4-2) earned the victory after coming in relief for Nate Ackenhausen. Herring was one of four Tiger pitchers to toss on the afternoon and fired 3.0 innings while giving up two runs on three hits and striking out four batters.
OSU starter Rhett Larson (3-3) was charged with the loss after allowing four runs on four hits in 3.2 innings pitched.
Through the first three innings, both starting pitchers handcuffed their respective hitters. LSU left-hander Riley Cooper tossed three hitless and scoreless innings before the Tigers answered in the top of the fourth with four runs.
The rally began with two singles from catcher Hayden Travinski and designated hitter Cade Beloso. Second baseman Gavin Dugas and right fielder Brayden Jobert followed with two straight HBP. Jobert’s hit-by-pitch drove in the first run of the game. With the bases loaded, shortstop Jordan Thompson lifted a sac fly to left field to make the score 2-0.
LSU added two more to its total, courtesy of a triple from left fielder Josh Pearson. Oregon State’s Gavin Turley cut the Tigers’ lead in half with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth.
Similar to Sunday’s contest between LSU and OSU, Travinski and Beloso went back-to-back for the second straight game. Travinski launched his 10th of the season and Beloso blasted his 13th dinger of the year. The Tigers led 6-2 after five innings.
LSU tacked on a single run in the sixth and five in the seventh on the strength of two solo shots by centerfielder Dylan Crews and Dugas and a two-RBI single from third baseman Tommy White.
The Beavers in the meantime launched their second two-run bomb of the afternoon to double their total. LSU led 12-4 after seven innings.
The Tigers added one in the ninth on an RBI single from Travinski and the Beavers tacked on three in the bottom of the ninth to account for the final margin.
