Falcons Fall on Opening Day to #7 LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Air Force Academy baseball team fell in the 2021 season opener to #7 LSU, 6-1, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 20, at Alex Box Stadium. The Falcons held tight against the nationally ranked Tigers, trailing by just three runs late in the game.

The Falcons were only out-hit by two, 8-6. AF tallied six singles, led by a three-hit day from junior Braydon Altorfer, tying his career-high. Sophomore Blake Covin went 2-for-2 with two singles, a walk, and the lone run scored.

On the mound, junior Stevan Fairburn Jr. earned the opening day start, and was the hard luck loser after going the first four innings. The southpaw allowed just one earned run on three hits, while striking out a pair.

The Tigers struck first with a bases loaded walk in the first, but from there Fairburn settled in to keep it 1-0 into the fifth. The bats collected four singles in the first five, with two of each coming off the bat of Altorfer and Covin, but nothing else was doing offensively beyond that.

Following a pitching change, LSU got another run in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 2-0 lead with four innings to play. They added one more in the both the sixth and seventh to make it a four run deficit into the eighth inning.

In the eighth, Covin led off with a walk to reach for the third time. After a wild pitch and deep fly out, Covin reached third. He then scored on another wild pitch to get the Falcons on the board. LSU answered with a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to get their lead to 6-1 into the final turn at the plate. AF got a third single from Altorfer, but it was not enough in the five-run defeat.

The Falcons will be back in action tomorrow, Feb. 21, for a doubleheader at Alex Box. The Falcons will rematch with the Tigers at 11 a.m. MT, before taking on Louisiana Tech at 3 p.m. MT.

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Team Stats

Braydon Altorfer

Blake Covin

Gabriel Garcia

Christian Gambale

Players Mentioned

Braydon Altorfer

Blake Covin

Stevan Fairburn Jr.

Players Mentioned

Braydon Altorfer

Blake Covin

Stevan Fairburn Jr.

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