BATON ROUGE — For the second time in two days, LSU would come back from a 6-3 deficit after the fifth inning to beat the second-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks, 7-6, Saturday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (18-8, 5-2 SEC) won for the seventh straight time and the fifth straight in conference play, while South Carolina lost for only the third time in 2000 and fell to 23-3 overall and 5-3 in league play.
Although tonight’s game didn’t have the ninth-inning drama that Friday night’s game had, the Tigers took the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning on a two-RBI double by Brad Cresse which proved to be the game winner.
Reliever Shane Youman came in to pitch an inning and pick up the win, his first of the season against no losses. For USC, John Wesley pitched an inning of relief and received the loss and fell to 0-1 on the season.
LSU’s Ryan Theriot, Blair Barbier and Cresse each picked up two hits, while Ryan Jorgensen went 3-for-4. Cresse, Barbier and Jorgensen hit home runs for the Tigers.
LSU will go for the sweep Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in a game that was moved up 30 minutes to accommodate USC’s travel plans.?
The Gamecocks began the game by jumping all over Hodges with back-to-back singles up the middle by Nate Janowicz and shortstop Drew Meyer, who missed game one of the series with a death in the family. On Meyer’s single, center fielder Jeremy Witten missed played the ball and allowed the runners to advance to second and third. Janowicz would score an unearned run on a fielder’s choice by Brandon Pack to make the score 1-0. Hodges would strikeout Chris Plummer to end the inning.
LSU would also benefit from an error in the bottom half of the inning, as leadoff hitter Ryan Theriot hit an infield single and advanced to second on an error by Meyer. However, the next batter up, Mike Fontenot lined to first baseman Tripp Kelly who threw to second to double-up Theriot. The double play proved costly because Brad Cresse then hit his 11th home run of the season to straight-away center field — and extend his hitting streak to 19 games — to tie the score at 1-1. Brad Hawpe would strikeout to end the inning.
After Hodges sat the Gamecocks down in order in the top of the second, Barbier led off the LSU half with a single and moved over to second on a ground out by Witten. With two outs, Ray Wright lined out to Meyer at shot to end the inning.
Hodges continued to shine in the third, once again sitting USC’s batters down in order.
In the bottom of the third, Ryan Jorgensen would take USC starter Peter Bauer deep again for his second home run of the season. Jorgensen’s shot easily cleared the left field bleachers and bounced to married-student housing behind the parking lot. Leading 2-1, Ryan Theriot reached base on an error by Plummer and stole second. After Cresse walked, Hawpe grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat.
After retiring 10 straight, Hodges gave up a home run to Brandon Pack to tie the game at 2-2 in the fourth. With two outs, Hodges then allowed a double to Kelly and an RBI single to designated hitter Trey Dyson to fall behind, 3-2.
Prior to this game, Bauer had allowed only one home run in 36 innings of work this season, and as a team South Carolina had only allowed 11 in 224 1/3 innings. However, Blair Barbier hit the third of the day for the Tigers in the fourth to tie the score again, 3-3. Barbier’s shot over the left-field bleachers, his third home run of the season, was the sixth of the weekend series by LSU.
LSU would get two runners on with only one out in the fourth as Witten beat out a throw for an infield single and Wright walked. Witten was caught stealing third and Wright advanced to second on the throw down. With two outs, Jorgensen hit an infield single to put runners on the corners for Theriot. Jorgensen then stole second on Bauer without a throw to second. But, Theriot stuck out and the Tigers would leave two aboard.
In the fifth, Marcus McBeth gave USC the lead again with a solo home run over the left-field wall, a popular place with the wind blowing out. Then, Janowicz hit a ball along the right-field line which appeared to be foul but was ruled a triple by the umpire. With no outs, Hodges was lifted in favor of Billy Brian. Brian allowed a RBI single up the middle to Meyer to close the book on Hodges.
Hodges allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits while striking out six and walking none. Brian would only pitch to two batters after giving up a walk to Dees. In his place came Weylin Guidry.
After Guidry forced Pack to ground into a fielder’s choice, the Tigers caught Pack in a run down for the second out of the inning. Guidry would then get Plummer to ground out to Theriot to end the inning.
LSU and USC both went quietly in the sixth as the game began to look similar to LSU’s Friday night comeback victory: Down two runs with little production in the late innings.
Guidry would allow another run to cross the plate in the seventh with two out, extending the USC lead to 6-3.
In the LSU half of the seventh, Theriot would reach base on a single up the middle before Fontenot hit another drive up the middle and advanced to second on the throw to third. With Theriot on third and Fontenot on second, USC decided to pitch to Cresse. But, after three balls, Bauer intentionally walked Cresse to load the bases for Hawpe. Hawpe hit a fly ball to deep center to score Theriot and advance Fontenot to third with one out.
Blair Barbier then hit the first pitch sharply to third baseman Bryon Jeffcoat who threw out Cresse at second but the relay throw was in the dirt and failed to double-up Barbier, thus allowing Fontenot to score and cut the lead to 6-5. Wally Pontiff would pick up his first hit of the game through the left side of the infield, but Witten grounded out to short to end the inning.
After Guidry got Kelly to ground out to Theriot, he was relieved by Shane Youman, a lefty brought in to pitch to the lefthanded Dyson. Guidry would allow one run on two hits while walking one and striking out three in 3 1/3 innings.
Youman would give up a dribbling infield base hit to Dyson, who was then pinch run for by Shane Nelson. Although John McHenry literally threw the bat at Youman’s pitch-out, Jorgensen maintained focus and threw out Nelson at second for the second out. One pitch later, Youman struck out McHenry to end the inning.
After pitching seven complete innings, USC’s Bauer was relieved by righthander John Wesley. Bauer allowed five runs (all earned) on 10 hits while walking four and striking out five.
In the bottom of the eighth, Jorgensen singled up the middle for his third hit of the game and was pinch run for by Billy McBride. Theriot then walked to put runners on first and second. After Fontenot struck out for the third time in the game, Cresse would come to the plate with only one official plate appearance to go along with three walks. Cresse hit a rocket off the base of the wall in left-center field to score McBride and Theriot on the double and give LSU a 7-6 lead.
Youman would walk the leadoff hitter, McBeth, on four pitches and the second hitter, Janowicz, to open the top of the ninth. Meyer then sacrificed both runners over another base for the first out of the inning. Ben Saxon then entered in relief of Youman to face Dees, who, with a 3-0 count, would line out to Hawpe at first for the second out. Looking for the final out of the game, Saxon would face Steve Thomas, a pinch hitter who had only four at bats on the season. Thomas would hit a ground ball to Hawpe who would toss it to Saxon for the final out.