BATON ROUGE — The Tiger pitching staff continued to struggle and the recently-prolific offense couldn’t put together a rally as the LSU baseball team lost to Mississippi State in game three of the weekend series, 10-3, Sunday in Alex Box Stadium.
LSU lost two of three in the home series and fell to 32-13 overall including 13-7 in Southeastern Conference play. MSU improved to 29-11 and 11-7 in league play.
Mississippi State starter Mark Freed (7-0) remained perfect on the season by pitching a career high 7 2/3 innings while allowing nine hits and three runs. He struck out seven and walked only two.
LSU’s Jason Scobie received the loss and fell to 1-1 on the season.
State right fielder Phillip Willingham went 5-for-6 with two runs score and one RBI to lead the Bulldogs.
The Tigers return to action Tuesday night at 7 p.m. against Northwestern State in Alex Box Stadium.
After combining to score 61 runs in the first two games of the series, LSU and MSU began what appeared to be another slugfest, but quickly turned one-sided.
With one out, the Bulldogs loaded the bases on Scobie on a pair of singles and a walk. However, Scobie struck out his second batter of the inning, Ty Martin, before Jamie Rock grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the threat.
LSU went down in order for only the second time this weekend in the bottom of the first against Freed before Scobie retired the Bulldogs in order in the top of the second for only the third time in the series.
The Bulldogs got on the board in the top of the third with a solo home run by Shane Kelly that sailed over the right field fence and hit the scoreboard. MSU’s next batter, Willingham singled and advanced to second on a balk by Scobie, LSU’s second of the season. After Travis Chapman walked, Jon Knott grouneded into a 4-6-3 double play to give Scobie two outs. Martin then grounded out to end the inning.
Freed extended his streak to seven batters in the third before Johnnie Thibodeaux earned LSU’s first hit by doubling down the left field line. Thibodeaux scored on an RBI single to right by Ryan Theriot to tie the game at 1-1.
The Bulldogs earned the lead in the fourth with a double by Brian Terry, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Ryan McGrath. MSU’s next single knocked Scobie out of the game and brought on Shane Youman from the bullpen.
After going 0-2 to the first two batters, Youman gave up RBI singles to Willingham and Chapman. Willingham would also score on Chapman’s single as Harris misplayed the ball in center. MSU led 5-1.
Scobie left the game after 3 2/3 innings, giving up four earned runs on seven hits while striking out two and walking two. He had one wild pitch and one balk.
Once again in the fourth, Freed plowed through the Tiger lineup without a problem. In the top of the fifth, Trey Hodges entered in relief of Youman. Youman pitched to three batters, gave up one hit, one unearned run and was credited with 1/3 of an inning
Hodges gave up another solo home run to Martin to open the fifth. This run was the 68th combined for the two teams in the series, tying LSU’s school record for runs in a three-game series set in 1978 against Mississippi State (MSU won all three games of that series: 12-4, 7-6, 26-13).
With two outs in the fifth, LSU earned only its third hit of the day when Thibodeaux hit his season double in as many at bats. However, Freed struck out Victor Brumfield for his fifth ‘K’ to end the inning.
Tim Nugent became the second Tiger pitcher to give up a solo home run to the first batter he faced as shortstop Matthew Maniscalco hit his third of the season into the left field bleachers to give MSU a 7-1 lead.
After giving up three hits and only getting one out, Nugent was lifted in favor of Weylin Guidry. After a Theriot error loaded the bases, Guidry’s wild pitch gave MSU another unearned run and an 8-1 lead.
In the sixth, LSU mounted its first threat since the third inning by putting runners on first and third with one out after singles by Theriot and Cresse, but Harris grounded into a double play to end the inning.
State continued to score on Tiger mistakes in the seventh, as a two-base error by Witten in left field and a wild pitch gave the Bulldogs a 9-1 lead.
Although Thibodeaux hit a single for his career-high third hit of the game, LSU still couldn’t solve Freed in the seventh. In MSU’s half of the eighth, Hunter Gomez entered as the sixth Tiger pitcher and got out of the inning unscathed.
In the Tiger eighth, Mike Fontenot walked before Cresse cut the lead to 9-3 with a mamouth home run into the wind and over the centerfield fence, his 22nd of the season. After a single by Harris and a fielder’s choice by Brad Hawpe, Ryan Jorgensen singled up the middle to put runners on first and third with two outs.
Making his 21st appearance of the season, righthander Adam Larson entered the game in relief of Freed to strikeout Witten and end the inning.
MSU earned its final run of the game with a double by McGrath and an RBI single by Kelly. Kelly finished 3-for-6 with two runs and two RBI.
With a 2-2 count to Thibodeaux and no outs, the bottom of the ninth was delayed 39 minutes by rain.Thibodeaux flew out to deep center, pinch hitter Wally Pontiff flew out to right, Theriot singled to left and Fontenot lined out to left to end the game.
PRE-GAME NOTES:
- With senior Blair Barbier out for the seventh consecutive game with a pulled quadriceps, Baton Rouge native and Catholic High graduate Victor Brumfield started at third base. With lefthanded Mark Freed on the mound to start the game for the Tigers, the right-handed Brumfield got the call in favor of left-handed Wally Pontiff for the second time this weekend.
- LSU head coach Skip Bertman continued to play the percentages in his batting lineup as well, switching the hot-hitting Cedrick Harris (.402 on the season) to Brad Hawpe’s clean-up spot. Hawpe, a lefthander, has struggled against lefthanded pitching this season, batting only .091 (4-of-44) against southpaws entering the game.
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