BATON ROUGE — Mississippi State came back from four-, three-, two- and one-run deficits to tie LSU on four separate occasions Friday night before pulling away for a 15-13 win in game one of the series.
LSU fell to 31-12 on the season including 12-6 in the SEC. Mississippi State improved to 28-10 and 10-6 in league play.
Bo Pettit pitched 2 1/3 innings in relieve and received the loss, falling to 3-3 on the season. Mississippi State’s Steven Dowe earned the win after pitching 4 1/3 innings in relief and allowing only one run on five hits. He improved to 2-0.
The two teams will meet Saturday at 4 p.m. in game two of the series before Sunday’s finale at 1 p.m.
LSU got on the board in the bottom of the first when Ryan Theriot singled to open the game, Mike Fontenot was hit by a pitch and Brad Cresse hit a Texas Leaguer which drove home Theriot when right fielder Phillip Willingham’s throw to second sailed over the head of shortstop Matthew Maniscalco.
The Tigers loaded the bases on a walk to Brad Hawpe before Cedrick Harris singled in Fontenot, Ryan Jorgensen grounded into a double play to drive in Cresse and Jeremy Witten singled to score Hawpe and lead 4-0.
The Tigers batted around in the first as Bulldog starter Kevin Donovan threw 40 pitches.
MSU battled back in the top of the second, scoring four runs on a walk, a single, two doubles by leadoff hitter Shane Kelly and Willingham, and an RBI single by Travis Chapman, tying the score at 4-4.
The Bulldogs also batted around in the second as LSU starter Hunter Gomez threw 43 pitches.
LSU put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the third to regain the lead, 6-4. With one out, Harris and Jorgensen hit back-to-back singles before executing a double steal. Witten then knocked in Harris with a single to left, Thibodeaux walked and pinch hitter Wally Pontiff hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to score Jorgensen.
Mississippi State once again matched LSU’s performance with two runs of their own in the top of the fourth, driving Gomez from the game. Gomez finished his outing pitching 3 2/3 innings while giving up six earned runs on seven hits.
As the game crept into its third hour of play, LSU scored three more runs in the bottom of the fourth on singles by Fontenot and Cresse followed by an RBI double by Hawpe, a run-scoring sacrifice fly by Harris and an RBI single by Jorgensen to give LSU a short-live lead.
The lead was short-lived because MSU scored four in the fifth off of Shane Youman and Bo Pettit to regain the lead, 10-9. Eight Bulldogs came to the plate and earned three hits, one walk and a hit by pitch to go along with a Tiger error.
As expected in this back-and-forth affair, LSU tied the game in the bottom of the fifth after a leadoff walk to Pontiff led to run when Cresse grounded into a bases loaded double play.
Tied 10-10, the Bulldogs once again pulled ahead ever so slightly in the top of the sixth with a solo home run by first baseman Kelly off of Pettit. MSU led 11-10 at the seventh-inning stretch.
MSU added three more in the top of the seventh, driving Pettit from the game in favor of Weylin Guidry. Guidry would allow one more in the ninth to end the game, 15-10.
The Tigers mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases for Cresse, who hit a two-RBI double to right to cut the lead to 15-12. With runners on second and third and one out, Hawpe grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Fontenot and bring the tying run to the plate in Harris.