BATON ROUGE, La. – The Holy Cross baseball team led early but ultimately fell to national No. 13 LSU, 9-2, on Wednesday, March 6.

STATS LEADERS:

• Ben Malgeri (1-for-4, home run)
• Evan Blum (1-for-1, double)
• Austin Masel (1-for-4)

W: Aaron George (2-0)

L: C.J. McKennitt (0-2)

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Freshman right fielder Ben Malgeri hit a one-out home run to left field -- his second homer of the year -- to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
• Antoine Duplantis evened the score in the bottom half of the inning, hitting a two-out home run to make it a 1-1 game.
• Senior third baseman Alex Gionis and senior right fielder Kellen McCormick had back-to-back walks with one out in the second. Gionis stole third base and later scored on an error by the shortstop to put the Crusaders up 2-1.
• Senior righty Declan Cronin pitched a shutout second inning, but the Tigers added a run in the third and another in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead.
• LSU added four runs in the fifth, followed by another run in the sixth and one more in the seventh to build its lead to 9-2.
• Sophomore righty Eric Lopes pitched a perfect eighth inning for the Crusaders to keep the Tigers off the board in their final frame.

DUE UP:

• The Crusaders head to Hattiesburg, Mississippi for a three-game series against Southern Miss beginning Friday, March 8.
• First pitch for Friday's game is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.

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