BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU right-hander Joey Bourgeois allowed only one hit through seven shutout innings and catcher Micah Gibbs delivered two RBI as No. 1 LSU held off a late Pepperdine rally to beat the Waves, 3-2, Saturday night in Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (10-0) is off to its best start since 1997 when the Tigers started that season with a 19-0 mark. Saturday’s win was the Tigers’ 16th-straight home victory, dating back to last season.
The Tigers will face Brown Sunday at Noon in Alex Box Stadium. The Bears (1-2) fell to Pepperdine earlier Saturday 19-3. Freshman left-hander Jordan Rittiner (1-0) will start Sunday’s matchup for LSU. Brown will counter with senior right-hander Rob Wilcox (0-0).
“I’m very proud of the way our guys played tonight,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I told them they would have to be at their best and completely immersed in this game in order to win, and they responded very well. I thought Joey Bourgeois was tremendous tonight; he gave us the outing we needed to win against an outstanding pitcher from Pepperdine.”
Bourgeois (2-0) fired seven scoreless innings, allowing only one hit while striking out three. Pepperdine ace Matt Bywater (1-1) was charged with the loss after working 6.1 innings, allowing only one earned run on seven hits with seven strikeouts.
In addition to Gibbs’ two RBI, center fielder Leon Landry helped lead the Tigers offensively, as he finished 2-for-4 on the night.
The Tigers got on the board in the first inning when Trey Watkins walked to lead off the inning and later scored when Gibbs slapped an RBI single up the middle to give LSU an early 1-0 lead.
Bywater held the Tigers scoreless through the next five innings before allowing two unearned runs in the seventh when Gibbs reached base on a throwing error by Wave second baseman Joe Sever with the bases loaded. Sever’s error allowed LSU to take a 3-0 lead.
The Waves rallied in the top of the ninth when designated hitter Floyd Given launched a two-run homer off of LSU closer Matty Ott to cut the Pepperdine deficit to 3-2. The homer was Given’s first of the season.
Ott was credited with his fifth save of the season after worked the final two innings of the game, allowing two runs on two hits. Ott now has 21 career saves, and he his second on the all-time LSU saves list behind Rick Greene (29 saves, 1990-92).
