BATON ROUGE – The No. 6 LSU baseball team fell to the UNO Privateers, 7-4, in 15 innings Wednesday night at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

The game marked the first time in the new Alex Box Stadium, which opened in 2009, that a game had reached 15 innings.

John Michael Stephens (1-0) earned the win after entering in relief, allowing no runs on two hits and striking out one in 3.2 innings of work.

The loss was charged to Collin Strall, who fell to 0-2 on the year. He fired 4.2 innings and allowed four earned runs on four hits, struck out three and walked one.

Todd Peterson got the start for the Tigers, his first of his collegiate career. He fired two innings, walked one and gave up one run on two hits.

The Tigers open conference play with a three game series against Georgia at The Box, beginning Friday at 7 p.m. CT. The games will be available online only via SEC Network+ and can be accessed at WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. They will also be broadcast live on the LSU Sports Radio Network, including 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge. Fans can also go to LSUsports.net for live stats and audio. 

“After the first inning, we just didn’t do much offensively,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri.  “Fortunately, our bullpen was outstanding, and we hung right in there. We had opportunities to win the game in the later innings with runners in scoring position; we  just couldn’t quite get the hit to finish it off.”

UNO took the early 1-0 lead in the top of the first. With one out, second baseman Samuel Capielano drilled an infield single to shortstop and advanced to second on a throwing error. The second baseman scored after right fielder Tristan Clarke drilled a double to straightaway centerfield.

The Tigers answered in the bottom of the first. With runners on first and second first baseman Jake Slaughter drove a ball deep to left center for his second home run of the season, a three run blast to give LSU the 3-1 advantage.

With a runner on second and two outs, UNO left fielder Dakota Dean doubled to the right-center gap to driving in Capielano from second, who had reached earlier on a single. Dean moved to third on a wild pitch and then scored on the third wild pitch in the inning to knot the score at 3-3.

In the bottom of the ninth, Cole Freeman led off with a walk. With one out and Freeman on third after a fielder’s choice, the Privateers opted to issue intentional walks to right fielder Greg Deichmann and Jake Slaughter to load the bases.

The Privateers scored a run in the 11th to take the 4-3 lead. With one out, first baseman Dakota Phillips singled through the left side, and Jared McKay entered to pinch run. McKay stole second and scored on third baseman Owen Magee’s single down the left field line. 

LSU knotted the score in the 11th inning at 4-4. With one out, pinch hitter Beau Jordan singled to shortstop, and Brennan Breaux entered to pinch run. After Breaux advanced to second on a Freeman single to left field, left fielder Antoine Duplantis extended his hit streak to 10 games, driving in the tying run with a single to left field.

Dean doubled down the left field line to lead off the top of the 15th inning. With one out and Dean at third base, catcher John Cable put a ground ball in place to second base, and Freeman tried to make the play at home but made an errant throw as UNO took the 5-4 lead.

The Privateers added another run as Cable scored on Magee’s single to the right-center gap to make it 6-4. Frederick loaded the bases with a walk and followed with a bases-loaded walk to give UNO the 7-4 advantage.

“We don’t have much time to think about this game  tonight, because the 30-game SEC grind is about to begin,” Mainieri said. “We’ve got a lot of tough games ahead of us, beginning with this Friday, so we’ll get back to practice and be ready to go with a good, positive attitude this weekend.”