BATON ROUGE — The six-ranked LSU baseball team came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Arizona State Sun Devils, 8-4, in the schools’ first meeting Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
Starting pitcher Brian Tallet (2-0) overcame a slow start to hold the Sun Devils at bay through six innings, before the Tigers went to the bullpen for relief. Tallet finished the game allowing 11 hits and four earned runs while striking out seven and walking one.
Weylin Guidry pitched the final three innings without allowing a hit to pick up his first save as a Tiger.
Arizona State’s Eric Doble (0-1) allowed four hits and four earned runs in relief to record the loss.
Blair Barbier went 4-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored to lead the Tigers offensively. Mike Fontenot added two hits and two runs while Cedrick Harris went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
The big blast, however, came from Brad Hawpe who came to the plate with the bases-loaded in the fourth. A double into the left field corner gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead and they’d never trail again.
LSU fell behind 3-0 early when Tallet gave up eight hits and three earned runs in the first three innings. However, Tallet held the Sun Devils scoreless in the fourth, faced the minimum in the fifth and put them down in order in the sixth, giving the Tiger batters a chance to get back into the game.
The Tiger bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth, as Fontenot led off with a walk and Brad Cresse was hit by a pitch. After Hawpe grounded into a double play, Barbier singled in Fontenot and then stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Harris then hit an RBI single to score Barbier and make the score 3-2.
Mired in a 2-for-12 slump to start the season, Hawpe hit a bases-loaded two-run double with one out in the bottom of the fifth to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead. With Hawpe on second and Cresse on third, Barbier then hit a seeing-eye ground ball up the middle to drive in both runs and put LSU up 6-3. He was tagged out in a run down on the throw back to the infield.
The Tigers put another run on the board in the sixth, however Arizona State answered it in the top of the seventh when Tallet finally surrendered three hits. Shortstop Dennis Wyrick tripled to right to lead off the inning and scored on a single by Jeff Duncan to cut the lead to 7-4. Tallet was relieved by Weylin Guidry after giving up a chopper through the infield by Casey Myers.
With one out and runners on second and third, Guidry forced the Sun Devils’ leading hitter, Mitch Jones, to fly out to right. LSU right fielder David Raymer then threw a bullet to catcher Ryan Jorgensen who tagged out Jonah Martin at home for the third out.
The Tigers threatened again in the bottom of the seventh as Barbier led off with a double off the center field wall and advanced to third on a sacrifice by Harris. He then scored on a single by Jeremy Witten with the infield drawn in to make the score 8-4. LSU then grounded into two fielders’ choises to end the inning.
The Tigers and Sun Devils continue this three-game series Saturday and Sunday at Alex Box Stadium at 2 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.