Baton Rouge, La.  – On a chilly, windy afternoon in the bayou, the Wildcats held LSU to five runs, but struggled to put things together on offense, falling to the Tigers, 5-1.
 
How It Happened
 
The afternoon opened much like game one as LSU (12-3, 0-0 SEC) took a 2-0 lead early on a Tiger homer in the first inning.
 
The Wildcats (5-9, 0-0 SWAC) cut the deficit in half in the top of the third on some small ball – Franki Febles doubled down the left field line, advanced to third on a Colton Olasin flyout, and scored when Malik Stephens reached first on a throwing error.
 
Santos retired eight straight Tigers on the way to the bottom of the fourth, when a walk and a double plated an insurance run for LSU.
 
LSU began to pull away in the fifth with a pair of runs on three hits, and that was all as LSU took things, 5-1.
 
"Our guys competed again," Wildcats head coach Jonathan Hernandez said after the game. " When you hold an explosive offense like LSU to five runs in a game, in this atmosphere with 10,000 fans here at 'The Box' – that's the sort of thing that will carry us over as we begin conference play."
 
Nolan Santos was saddled with the loss. He finished the day at five innings pitched, allowing six hits, five earned runs, three walks, and a pair of punchouts.
 
Gabriel Perez provided three strong innings in relief of Santos, allowing no runs on only one hit with two walks and two strikeouts.
 
"Kudos to Santos," Hernandez said. "After that first inning he buckled up and gave us five. For Perez, again, as a freshman, he's proving to be a guy for us – he's been huge."
 
For Hernandez, the experienced gained this weekend will prove invaluable as SWAC play approaches next weekend.
 
"This is why we schedule these games," Hernandez said. "These are the opportunities that we, as a program, want to be able to take advantage of to continue to grow our brand and grow our program to compete for a SWAC championship at the end of the year."
 
 
Notes

• Malik Stephens has reached base safely in all 14 games this season. He has registered a hit in six straight games after a base hit today.
• Matthew Garcia saw his 11 game his streak end this afternoon. He had previously reached base in every game this season.
• The Wildcats have yet to commit an error in this series.
• B-CU held LSU to only two hits in 11 opportunities with runners in scoring position.
• Over his last 9.1 IP, Gabriel Perez has allowed one run on three hits with eight strikeouts

 
Up Next
 
The Wildcats close out the weekend in Baton Rouge with the series finale at LSU tomorrow – first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. EST.   
 
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