BATON ROUGE — Junior right-hander Anthony Eyanson fired 7.2 scoreless innings Friday night, and second baseman Daniel Dickinson blasted two home runs as top-ranked LSU posted a 7-0 shutout victory over Little Rock in Game 1 of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
“Good win for our team tonight,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “I’m proud of the players. It was a long day obviously working through the delay and all that, but we were ready to go. It was great to be back at home after a couple of weeks.”
LSU, which improved to 44-14 this season, will face the winner of Friday night’s Rhode Island-Dallas Baptist game at 8 p.m. CT Saturday.
Little Rock, which dropped to 24-33, will meet the loser of Friday night’s Rhode Island-Dallas Baptist game at 2 p.m. CT Saturday.
Dickinson’s two homers and three RBI came in his first-ever NCAA tournament appearance.
“He’s competitive,” said Johnson. “And I can relate, when you’re as competitive as you are, sometimes your best quality can become your worst enemy as a hitter. I wanted to get him reset for that third at-bat (when he hit a two-run homer), and he did.”
Eyanson (10-2) earned the win after working 7.2 scoreless innings and recording seven strikeouts, while Little Rock’s Jackson Wells (3-7) was charged with the loss.
“I just wanted to execute,” said Eyanson when asked about what he wanted to accomplish in Friday’s outing. “ I’m going to say that probably every interview. Honestly, I just wanted to execute, slow down in the moment. I’m super grateful for being on the mound. I just wanted to attack and compete, mentally be aggressive, and go after the other team.”
Leftfielder Derek Curiel and rightfielder Jake Brown both recorded two-hit games for LSU, with each player driving in a run.
The Tigers opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when Brown singled to right to score Curiel after he had led the game off with a single of his own.
LSU doubled their advantage in the second inning when first baseman Jared Jones delivered an RBI single to score centerfielder Chris Stanfield, who had earlier reached on a single.
Dickinson launched a solo home run in the fifth inning to increase the margin. The Tigers added to the lead in the sixth via Curiel’s RBI double and Dickinson’s second homer of the game – a two-run shot – making it 6-0.
“You can’t win the game and have the game over in the first inning,” Johnson said. “You can’t try to force it. You’ve got to let the game come to you a little bit. I thought we did that tonight. And when you have really good pitching and really good defense, it should allow your offense to play with great confidence. I thought we played well tonight. It was a good night for the Tigers on offense.”
The finishing touch was applied in the seventh when third baseman Michael Braswell III doubled and scored shortstop Steven Milam from second base. Relievers DJ Primeaux and Mavrick Rizy combined to finish the final 1.1 innings for the Tigers and preserve the shutout.