LSU earns series win over Tennessee with 12-2 rout on Sunday
BATON ROUGE, La. – The true freshmen duo of Casan Evans and Deriek Curiel led fourth-ranked LSU Sunday to a 12-2 over No. 5 Tennessee in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
The game was halted in the bottom of the eighth inning due to the 10-run rule.
Evans, a right-hander, made his first career start on the mound and worked six innings to earn the win, while Curiel, the Tigers’ leftfielder, was 4-for-4 at the plate with a homer, two doubles and five RBI.
“Those two players are special,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “There have been some great playersthat have come through this place, but they’re definitely up there in terms of the way they’ve started their LSU careers.”
LSU improved to 36-9 overall, 14-7 in the SEC, while Tennessee dropped to 35-9 overall and 13-8 in conference play. The win placed LSU in a tie for second place in the league standings with Arkansas.
The Tigers return to action at 6:30 p.m. CT Tuesday when they play host to Southeastern Louisiana in a game that will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SEC Network +.
“It was just a real complete game by our team today,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “It was a good performance all the way around. We played in our best character – loose, free, confident and aggressive with a good plan.”
Evans (3-0) pitched a career-long 6.0 innings, limiting Tennessee to two runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts. After allowing two run on four hits in the first inning, he gave up just two hits through five scoreless innings.
“Tennessee is a really good team with a really good offense,” Johnson said. “Casan took a bump in the first inning, but mentally, he stayed in a good place. As a coach, that’s what I’m most proud of; he gave up those two, but he responded with an awesome performance for the rest of his outing.”
Tennessee reliever Michael Sharman (2-1) was charged with the loss, as he surrendered two runs on one hit in the second inning without recording an out.
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With LSU trailing 2-0, Curiel launched a lead-off homer in the bottom of the first inning – his fifth dinger of the year – to cut the deficit in half.
Curiel tied the game in the second with an RBI double before rightfielder Jake Brown gave the Tigers a 5-2 lead later in the inning with a three-run homer, his fourth of the season.
LSU added a run in the fourth when centerfielder Chris Stanfield tripled and scored on Curiel’s single.
The Tigers extended the advantage to 8-2 in the fifth when Curiel drilled a two-run double after third baseman Michael Braswell III and catcher Luis Hernandez had drawn back-to-back walks.
A solo homer by Braswell III increased the lead to 9-2 in the seventh, and the Tigers scored three runs in the eighth to reach the 10-run margin and end the game.
Braswell III drove in a run on fielder’s choice grounder before Hernandez ended the contest with a two-run double off of the top of the left-field wall.
