Box Score (PDF)
BATON ROUGE, La. – Leading by two runs entering the seventh-inning stretch, Southeastern Louisiana dropped a heartbreaking 8-4 decision to LSU, the No. 8 national seed, Friday at Alex Box Stadium.
Southeastern (37-24) committed three errors in the final two innings and surrendered six runs, four unearned, falling to the Tigers in the school's first NCAA postseason appearance since 1994.
“Overall, I thought we competed the way we were supposed to,” Riser said. “We went out there, we battled. Obviously, we had the one inning that got away from us a little bit, but besides that… I’m proud of the kids. They went out there and competed from pitch one to the last pitch. Even the last at bat, we pulled a guy from the bench who hadn’t had an at-bat all day. He (Jesse Buratt) came in cold, but he came in ready to go. He kept battling off pitches and battling off pitches, but obviously he ends it with a fly-out. That just shows you the tenacity of our team. It shows you the mental makeup of our team. We’ve got a good bunch of tough kids. They are going to continue to compete no matter what happens.
“That one inning got away from us, but I’ve seen teams come back from it. I’ve seen teams come back and win the tournament... That was my challenge to them, what team are you going to be. Are you going to continue to be the guys that we are at Southeastern and continue to mentally be tough and mentally to battle at each pitch, or are you going to fold up? I think our guys are going to rise to the challenge.”
Southeastern built a 4-2 lead on home runs by Andrew Godbold and Sam Roberson, coming from behind to take the lead in the middle innings.
Godbold hit his ninth homer of the season, a two-out solo shot, in the first.
LSU (45-14-1) tied the game with a single run in the second, without a base hit, and took the lead with another run in the third.
The Lions tied the game in the fifth. Kyle Cedotal pulled a single into right field with one out and scored all the way from first on Jacob Williams double into the left-center gap.
Southeastern regained the lead an inning later. Tiger starting pitcher Jared Poche' issued a two-out walk to Daniel Midyett before Roberson yanked the ball out of the park to left-center for a two-run home run. It was the junior first baseman's fourth homer of the season.
Andro Cutura, Southeastern's starting pitcher, hit LSU shortstop Alex Bregman with a pitch to lead off the seventh. After striking out left fielder Jake Fraley, Cutura walked designated hitter Sean McMullen. Kade Scivicque, the final hitter Cutura faced, singled to left. Bregman came home to score when left fielder Kyle Cedotal misplayed the ball. Tiger first baseman Tyler Moore tied the game, greeting reliever Matt Pittari with a single to left, driving in McMullen.
LSU scored four unearned runs in the eighth off Dylan Hills for the game's deciding margin.
Tiger reliever Nate Fury (3-1), who worked two perfect innings in relief, earned the win. Hills (6-4) suffered the loss.
Southeastern will face the loser of the Houston (No. 2 seed) / Bryant (No. 3 seed) game Saturday at 2 p.m. in an elimination game.
“It starts right there with the meeting after the game,” Riser said. “We go right into it, and we talk about it. We say it’s a tough loss, and we had them on the ropes there until late. We just have to do a good job of flushing. That’s the game of baseball. The beauty of the game of baseball is that we get to go back out there again tomorrow and play some more. It’s not over yet, and that’s what we keep telling our guys. It starts from now. As soon as you get on that bus, you have to flush it. You have to learn from your mistakes, move on from it and also take the good out of the game. Like I said, the best part for me, I saw our guys compete and continue to battle. If they continue to do that part, we will be ok.”