BATON ROUGE, La. – In a pitchers' duel early, Auburn ultimately lost the series opener at LSU 5-0 Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
Auburn starter Dylan Watts retired the first 11 batters he faced and ultimately struck out a season-high nine batters in 5.2 innings, but LSU's duo of Gage Jump and Christian Little held the visiting Tigers scoreless and to just two hits in the game.
"They've been competitive starts, so there's been a little bit of growth," head coach Butch Thompson said. "(Dylan) had nine strikeouts and no walks against a good lineup, so I'm seeing growth. I thought there would be more runs on both sides, but Dylan absolutely steadied himself and got us almost to the back third (of the game)."
Watts needed just 36 pitches, including 26 strikes, to retire the first 11 LSU hitters he faced, but Tommy White sent the first pitch he saw in the fourth inning over the fence in right center to get the scoring started.
Chris Stanfield hit a one-out single in the fifth, Auburn's second hit of the game, and stole second but was stranded there on a flyout and strikeout to keep it a one-run game.
LSU (27-16, 6-13 SEC) doubled its advantage with a one-out homer from Hayden Travinski in the fifth, but Watts bounced back to strike out the next three batters he faced before his outing was over after a two-out single in the sixth. The sophomore righty logged season highs with 5.2 innings and nine strikeouts, the most by an Auburn pitcher this season, and the only two hits he allowed were two solo homers.
The homestanding Tigers took advantage of Auburn's (20-21, 2-17 SEC) bullpen with three runs on a two-RBI double and RBI single to cap off the scoring in the seventh. Four of LSU's five runs were scored with two outs.
After Jump allowed just two baserunners in 7.0 innings, Little retired all six Auburn hitters he faced to end the game.
"Can we have at-bats to make it harder to play defense, and can we come up with a strategy and execute a plan against a starter to try to get to something that might be a challenge on the other side that we can exploit?" Thompson said of the team's approach for game two.
Game two between Auburn and LSU is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. CT.
Watts’ solid start not enough in series opener at LSU
