ORLANDO — Junior left-hander Brian Tallet held the University of Central Florida to six hits and one run over 8 1/3 innings as his Louisiana State University Tigers toppled the Golden Knights 4-1 Sunday at Tinker Field.
Tallet (4-1), the staff ace, walked five and struck out six but forced UCF (11-8) to strand 10 baserunners in the game. Only two runners reached third base against him through eight innings before he tired in the ninth.
UCF managed its only run in that frame when Greg Good led off with a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Jeremy Frost ground out.
Senior southpaw David Rankin (2-3) rambled through eight innings and allowed three of the four runs. He gave up 10 hits and five walks and struck out six.
The Tigers’ Mike Fontenot, who had a 9-for-16 series with two home runs, led off the third inning with a single and scored two batters later on a Brad Cresse base hit.
In the fourth, Johnnie Thibodeaux was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a single and third on another hit batsman. He scored on an infield single by Jeremy Witten.
Wally Pontiff homered to right field for LSU’s run in the fifth. The Tigers (10-6) tacked on another run in the ninth with a Cresse single and stolen base, an error and the ensuing RBI single by Blair Barbier.
No. 11 LSU took two out of three in the series, improving its all-time mark against UCF to 9-2. The series drew 3,654 to the historic ballpark, including a crowd of 1,436 Saturday night.
Senior third baseman Dustin Brisson rapped his 56th career double, breaking the UCF record formerly held by Bobby Kiser (1987-90). Cresse finished 4-for-5 on the day. Witten and Barbier collected a pair of hits each as the Tigers left 13 men on base.