How It Happened: LSU Coach Jay Johnson elected to use one of his top two starting pitchers against a 24-32 Little Rock squad and the strategy worked for at least Friday night. Anthony Eyanson threw 7.2 innings of shutout baseball, scattering five hits and striking out seven on his curveball. Daniel Dickinson led the offense with two home runs.
Magic Moment: Litte Rock starting pitcher Jackson Wells did all he could to keep the Trojans in this game. He allowed three runs in five innings. After Wells left the game, the Tigers got to Brenden Katz, scoring three runs in the sixth inning, highlighted by Dickinson’s second home run of the game, a two-run shot.
Weather Delay: This game was scheduled to begin at 2 PM, but the threat of storms pushed the start time back to 5 PM. The game eventually started at 7:36 and it barely rained.
I understand the reason why NCAA officials and the coaches didn’t want to start the game when there was a threat of rain. You don’t want to start the game and three innings into the contest, run into a long rain delay and therefore lose your starting pitcher because you can’t bring him back.
But in-game rain delays are part of baseball and both teams have more than one pitcher on their roster. It’s frustrating to wait five and a half hours for the game to start and it barely rains.
Maybe I’m getting old and cranky, but the NCAA really needs to look at this issue. Yes, you hate to burn one of your best pitchers after three or four innings because of a lengthy rain delay, but I also don’t think it’s fair to ask Dallas Baptist and Rhode Island to start a game at 11 PM.
The good news is that rain chances are below 20% the next two days. The fact that rain chances are so low on Saturday and Sunday is probably why they decided to wait out Friday’s cloud cover.
LSU’s offense: It was a good day for LSU’s offense. They scored in all but three innings and cranked out 11 hits. Dickinson led the way with two home runs. The wind was blowing in and that knocked down several other potential home run balls.
Derek Curiel and Jake Brown each had two hits.
LSU pitching: LSU got exactly what they needed from Eyanson. DJ Primeaux got one out in the eighth inning and Mavrick Rizy pitched a clean ninth inning and struck out two.
The decision to start Eyanson on Friday means Kade Anderson will start on Saturday night.
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