Beau Jordan’s eighth inning grand slam powers LSU past Alabama, 7-5

BATON ROUGE- With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, senior Beau Jordan crushed a grand slam to left field to lift the LSU baseball team to a 7-5 victory against Alabama in Game 1 of the series Friday night in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

L-S-U! L-S-U! @beaujordan24 comes up with this monster shot to give LSU the 7-5 lead against Alabama!

💻: https://t.co/inQPtDwGwu pic.twitter.com/kD0LgddQvK

— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) May 12, 2018

With the win, LSU improves to 27-20 overall and 11-12 in league play while Arkansas drops to 33-14 on the year and 14-9 in conference action.

Game 2 of the series between LSU and Alabama will take place at 7 p.m. CT Saturday in “The Box.” The game will be televised by the SEC Network, and it can also be heard on affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio network. Live audio and live stats will be available at LSUsports.net.


John Kodros (1-1) was the pitcher of record for the Tigers, and the right-hander earned his first career win after firing 0.1 innings. The freshman turned it over to Todd Peterson, who earned his third save of the season, shutting out Alabama with only seven pitches in his one inning of action.

Zack Hess worked five innings and allowed four runs on six hits, walked four and struck out six.

After entering in relief of Alabama starter Sam Finnerty, Deacon Medders dropped to 0-4 on the season after giving up five runs—four earned—on one hit and walked three.

Finnerty limited the Tigers to one run on six hits, walked three and struck out one in his 6.2 innings of work.

In the top of the second with one out and catcher Sam Praytor on first after a leadoff single, first baseman John Trousdale doubled to left field to put runners in scoring position. Shortstop Jett Manning followed with a single to right field to give Alabama the 2-0 lead.

With the bases loaded in the top of the third, the Tide increased its lead to 4-0 after left fielder Keith Holcombe singled up the middle, driving in third baseman Cobie Vance and right fielder Joe Breaux, who reached earlier in the inning after being hit by a pitch and drawing a walk, respectively.

Antoine Duplantis stood on first in the bottom of the third after a fielding error on a fly ball to left field led off the inning and left fielder Daniel Cabrera crushed a one-out double to straightaway center to cut the Alabama lead to 4-1.

LSU right-hander Devin Fontenot entered to pitch in the sixth inning and retired six consecutive batters before allowing a hit and struck out three.

With Fontenot still pitching in the top of the eighth inning, Trousdale doubled to left-center, and Manning increased the Tide’s lead to 5-1 after slapping a single to left-center.

The momentum shifted in the Tigers’ favor in the bottom of the eighth when center fielder Zach Watson reached on a throwing error by the shortstop. Back-to-back walks by catcher Hunter Feduccia and third baseman Jake Slaughter loaded the bases for pinch hitter Nick Coomes. The senior smacked a 1-0 pitch through the left side to drive in Watson.

Second baseman Brandt Broussard worked a seven-pitch at-bat to walk home Feduccia, and with the stadium on its lead, the Tide moved to the bullpen for right-hander Sam Gardner.

With the count at 2-2, Beau Jordan homered to left field to give the Tigers the 7-5 advantage.