Baseball Holds off No. 6 LSU, 7-6

Tuesday, March 28

Baton Rouge, La.

6:30 p.m.

Tulane University

10-15

LSU

18-8

Tulane

LSU

Photo by: Parker Waters

Mar 28, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

Box Score | Highlights

BATON ROUGE, La. – Jake Willsey homered twice, and Lex Kaplan added a two-run home run of his own to lead Tulane baseball to a 7-6 win at No. 6 LSU Tuesday evening at Alex Box Stadium.

On a windy night that produced four home runs between the two clubs, the Green Wave (10-15) scored in four straight innings, then held off the Tigers (18-8) to pick up their second road win against a ranked opponent in a week.

Willsey hit a solo home run in the third inning to give Tulane a 1-0 lead, then followed it with a two-run blast in the sixth that made the score 6-5. Kaplan's two-run homer in the fifth inning came after LSU plated five runs in the fourth on an RBI single and a grand slam.

"Our guys came out swinging again tonight, and I like the way the dust settled," Tulane head coach Travis Jewett said. "LSU grabbed five (runs), and the tug of war was on. The ribbon went towards their dugout, and we came right back with two. I thought that was a heck of a response by the players. I think that gave us a lot of life to say, OK we're right back in this thing and let's keep moving forward, which we did."

Willsey gave Tulane a 1-0 lead in the third with a solo home run to deep left center field. The Green Wave added a run in the fourth when DeHart drew a walk, went to third on Sal Gozzo's single to right, and beat the throw home from short on a fielder's choice ground ball from Kody Hoese.

LSU took the lead, 5-2, with five runs in the bottom of the fourth. The Tigers loaded the bases with one out on a pair of walks and a hit batter, then Beau Jordan singled deep in the hole at short to score a run, and Michael Papierski followed with a grand slam to left field.

The Wave cut into the deficit in the fifth when Lex Kaplan hit a two-run homer to left center. It was his fourth homer of the season and third in the last four games, two of which have gone opposite field. Willsey gave Tulane the lead once again with his second homer of the game, a two-run shot to left field. It was his fourth homer of the year, and his fourth in the last three contests against LSU.

Tulane added an insurance run in the ninth, when Witherspoon hit a one-out single, and Hunter Williams drove a two-out double down the left field line, scoring Witherspoon from first base. The run gave the Green Wave a 7-5 cushion.

LSU cut the lead to 7-6 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Greg Deichmann walked, and scored on a fielding error at first base that rolled into the right field corner, allowing Josh Smith to reached third base. Colletti, however, got a pop out to Witherspoon in center to seal the win and earn his second save of the season.

Chase Solesky was solid in 3.0 scoreless innings in his start, allowing just two hits. Sam Bjorngjeld (2-2) was in for LSU's five-run fourth inning, but rebounded to hold the Tigers scoreless in the sixth, and allow the Wave to take the lead, earning the victory. Keagan Gillies was effective for 1.2 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and two walks. Colletti tossed the final 2.1 frames.

Russell Reynolds (0-1) took the loss, allowing two runs in 0.2 innings in relief of starter Zack Hess, who went 5.0 innings.

The Green Wave opens American Athletic Conference play this weekend against USF at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Game times are 6:30 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office in person, or by calling 504-861-WAVE.

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Tulane 7, LSU 6 (Mar 28, 2017 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Tulane.............. 001 122 001 - 7 10 3 (10-15)
LSU................. 000 500 001 - 6 6 0 (18-8)
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Pitchers: Tulane - SOLESKY, Chase; BJORNGJELD, Sam(4); GILLIES, Keagan(6);
COLLETTI, Christian(7) and GOZZO, Paul. LSU - Zack Hess; Russell Reynolds(6); Austin Bain(6);
Matthew Beck(7); Nick Bush(9) and Michael Papierski.
Win-BJORNGJELD, Sam(2-2) Save-COLLETTI, Christian(2) Loss-Russell Reynolds(0-1) T-3:19 A-10732
HR TLN - KAPLAN, Lex (4); WILLSEY, Jake 2 (4).
HR LSU - Michael Papierski (3).
Weather: 80 degrees, sunny