BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Aaron Nola pitched into the eighth inning and Conner Hale drove in two runs as LSU beat Houston 5-1 on Saturday night to advance to the championship round of the Baton Rouge regional.
Nola (11-1), a junior right-hander and likely first-round draft pick next week, allowed four hits, struck out seven and walked one in 7 1-3 innings for the Tigers (46-14-1).
Tied at 1 in the third, Mark Laird led off with a walk for LSU. With one out, Jake Fraley singled and Laird scored on a RBI single by Sean McMullen. After stealing second, McMullen scored on Hale’s RBI single to make it 3-1.
RBI singles by Laird and Alex Bregman in the seventh inning extended LSU’s lead to 5-1.
Houston (45-16) scored its lone run in the second inning on an RBI single by Michael Pyeatt. Jake Lemoine (6-7) took the loss for the Cougars.
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