Despite his final line seeming ordinary, it was actually another extraordinary effort from Jack Leiter on Friday night.
MLB Pipeline's No. 6 overall Draft prospect extended his no-hit streak to 20 innings and his scoreless run to 25 frames before both came to a halt in the fifth inning of Vanderbilt's 11-2 victory over LSU at Alex Box Stadium. The right-hander allowed a pair of runs (one earned) on three hits and a trio of walks while whiffing 12 over six frames. He tossed 69 of his 105 pitches for strikes.
The son of two-time All-Star and World Series champion Al Leiter, Jack escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first inning by punching out the side. He went on to fan six in a row and 10 of the next 12 batters he faced. Through four innings, Leiter had amassed 11 strikeouts without yielding a hit.
In the fifth, Collier Cranford punched a base hit through the right side of the infield. After an infield pop up by the next batter, Tre' Morgan found the grass in left field for a single that turned into extra bases on a fielding error by Jack Bulger. Will Safford then rolled over a pitch to second for an RBI groundout, before Leiter notched his 12th K of the night to get out of frame.
The right-hander gave up an earned run in his final inning of work when he served up a one-out solo homer to Cade Doughty on a hanging slider. It was the first extra-base hit Leiter allowed all season, and the earned run inflated his ERA to 0.43. The sixth was also the first frame in the game where he did not record at least one strikeout.
Leiter entered action on Friday with a 14.8 K/9IP rate, which ranked second all-time among college pitchers to Stephen Strasburg's 16.1 K/9IP rate which he posted in the Mountain West Conference with San Diego State.
Leiter's 71 strikeouts this season leads every college hurler in the nation.
The 6-foot, 195-pounder sat consistently in the mid-90s with his 55-grade fastball -- flashing 97 mph -- on Friday. Leiter's signature pitch is a 12-to-6 curveball in the upper 70s and he can land it for strikes or get hitters to chase it out of the zone. He has advanced feel for spin and also has a distinct low-80s slider that some evaluators think has more upside than his curve.
Vanderbilt shortstop Carter Young paced the Commodores attack with a homer, a triple and four RBIs.