BATON ROUGE - LSU pitching held down the LA Tech bats long enough for LSU hitters to figure out Bulldog starter David Leal as the Tigers turned a two-run rally into a 2-0 victory on Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium.

The showdown of Top 25 ranked teams looked like a pitchers duel for most of the night as LSU freshman right-hander AJ Labas fired six innings of two-hit baseball.

“Our pitching was outstanding tonight against a very good team,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “AJ gave us six great innings, and the bullpen did a masterful job of holding the lead. We had some clutch at-bats when we needed them against an excellent pitcher, and I thought we played well in all phases of the game. It was a good ball game and an important win for us heading into our conference series against Tennessee this weekend.”
Leal held the LSU bats in check until the sixth inning when the Tigers scored the only runs of the game with some timely hits. Third baseman Jake Slaughter was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt to lead off the inning, and center fielder Zach Watson ripped a single to left field to drive in Slaughter.

With Watson on third after a stolen base and a ground ball, right fielder Antoine Duplantis drove a single up the middle to give LSU the 2-0 lead. 

The 23rd-ranked LSU Tigers LSU improve to 21-13 on the season, while 25th-ranked Louisiana Tech drops to 24-11.

According to an LSU release, the game lasted 1:54, marking LSU’s shortest nine-inning game since a 2-1 victory over Auburn lasted 1:49 on May 22, 2002, in the SEC Tournament. 

Next up, the Tigers will host Tennessee in a weekend series at The Box, beginning Friday at 7 p.m.