LSU overpowers Huskies in three-game sweep

Mar 11, 2013, 12:00 AM

The Washington baseball team faced a tall test this weekend. In its three-game series with No. 3 LSU, the scuffling Huskies wanted to compete and try to sneak a game or two away from the Tigers. Unfortunately for the UW, it was not meant to be. The weekend went mostly as expected, with the red-hot Tigers scoring 24 runs in a three-game sweep over the Huskies (4-11). Despite the UW bats doing a little damage to a stellar LSU pitching staff, the UW’s pitchers struggled to handle LSU’s offense all weekend, with the Tigers hitting .310 and knocking four homeruns in the series. In Friday’s opener, the Huskies were held without a base runner until the seventh inning by LSU starter Austin Nola. Trailing 6-0, the UW rallied for four in the seventh behind a bases-loaded single from Trevor Mitsui that scored the UW’s first two runs. But LSU added one in the seventh and two more in the eighth to put the game out of reach, and it finished 9-4. On Saturday afternoon, LSU’s slugging powered it to an 8-4 win. Tiger first baseman Mason Katz had a day at the plate, blasting his third and fourth homeruns of the season off UW ace Austin Voth, who was tagged with seven runs — six earned — in 3 1/3 innings. The UW got four runs in an inning — the fourth — for the second straight day, but it wasn’t enough, as the Huskies lost in front of the largest crowd ever to watch a Washington baseball game, 11,483 people. The series finale was slightly different, as it was actually the Huskies who got on the board first. The UW scored two in the second inning on a wild pitch and an RBI groundout from Erik Forgione. But, in the bottom of the inning, LSU’s power bats made another unwanted appearance for Husky pitching, as Katz hit a two-run bomb to tie the game and Ty Ross blasted a solo shot to give LSU the lead for good. The Tigers added one in the third, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth before the UW got back into the game behind Jayce Ray. The senior outfielder tripled to left to score Forgione, then he scored on a wild pitch to cut the LSU lead to 7-4. The UW got one more in the eighth on an RBI groundout from Brian Wolfe, but that was all they could add, and it finished 7-5. Once again, the Huskies struggled over the weekend, and now they have one game to turn things around before conference play. The UW hosts Portland on Tuesday evening for a single game before traveling to begin Pac-12 play against No. 7 UCLA next weekend. Reach reporter Daniel Rubens at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: drubens12

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