Hayden Travinski Propels No. 2 LSU Over UL Lafayette in Houston

Travinski pieced together another impressive day at the plate, catapults the Tigers over the Cajuns.

LSU left-hander Gage Jump fired five scoreless innings Saturday night, and designated hitter Hayden Travinski drove in three runs to lead the second-ranked Tigers to a 5-4 over UL Lafayette in the Astros Foundation College Classic at Minute Maid Park.

LSU improved to 10-1 this season, while the Cajuns dropped to 5-5.

The Tigers return to action at 3 p.m. CT Sunday when they meet Texas State at Minute Maid Park. The game will be broadcast on affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network, and it will be streamed free on Astros.com and all of the Houston Astros social media channels, including X, Facebook and YouTube.

The LSU-Texas State game will be televised by Space City Home Network and available on the channel in the entirety of the Astros five-state viewing area of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Space City Home Network is available on DirecTV, AT&T Uverse, Xfinity, Consolidated Communications, btel, Astound, Phonoscope, and I-Net.

Jump (1-0) earned the win by limiting the Cajuns to just one hit in five shutout innings with no walks and five strikeouts. He threw 76 pitches, 59 for strikes in the outing.

Travinski was 2-for-3 at the plate with a two-run single in the fifth inning and a solo homer in the seventh that extended the LSU lead to 5-3.

“It was a great win, hard-fought, and we knew it would be,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “UL Lafayette has a great team, and I think this win will prove to be valuable for us down the road. We’re very happy to win; the players really did a good job tonight. We were a little slow at the start offensively, but we did what we needed to do to win the game.”

UL Lafayette starting pitcher Andrew Herrmann (1-1) was charged with the loss, as he allowed three runs on one hit in 4.2 innings with five walks and eight strikeouts.

Jump and Herrmann engaged in a duel through the first four innings, and neither team had a hit until UL Lafayette first baseman Trey LaFleur blooped a single with two out in the fifth inning.

“Gage was outstanding,” Johnson said, “and I couldn’t be happier with the effort we got from all of our pitchers against a good offensive team. When you get that type of starting pitching, you’re obviously going to have a chance to win.”

LSU broke the 0-0 tie with four runs in the bottom of the fifth as Travinski’s two-RBI single and a run-scoring double by first baseman Jared Jones highlighted the outburst.

The Cajuns, however, rebounded in the sixth when third baseman Duncan Pastore launched a three-run homer, his first dinger of the season.

Travinski’s solo shot in the seventh – his second homer of the season – gave the Tigers a two-run advantage.

LSU reliever Justin Loer retired the first two UL Lafayette hitters in the top of the ninth inning before catcher Jose Torres blasted his first homer of the season to cut the Cajuns’ deficit to 5-4.

LaFleur then reached on an infield single, but Loer struck out second baseman John Taylor to end the game.

Loer was credited with his first save, as he worked the final 2.1 innings and allowed one run on two hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

“Hermann made it really tough on our hitters tonight,” Johnson said, “and we just had to stay with it. As the game moved on, we started laying off pitches that we didn’t previously, and that was the difference in the game.”