BATON ROUGE — For the second time this season, the LSU baseball team fell to Chris Howay and the McNesse State Cowboys in 11 innings, 4-3, in what was its final mid-week game of the 2000 regular season Tuesday night in Lake Charles. LSU committed four errors and allowed two passed balls and three unearned runs in the loss.
J.J. Korf opened the 11th with a triple off of the wall and scored the winning run on a double off the wall by Nolan Parker with no outs.
Howay, who pitched eight innings in a 9-8 victory over LSU earlier this season, improved to 11-1 on the season after pitching six scoreless inning in relief in front of the largest crowd in McNeese baseball history. The 11th win for Howay set a school record.
The game lasted four hours and five minutes.
With the loss, LSU fell to 35-15 on the season. McNeese, which stands in first place in the Southland Conference going into the weekend, ended its regular season at 39-16. The Cowboys will play for an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament in the Southland Conference Tournament later this month.
Cowboy head coach and former Tiger catcher Mike Bianco picked up the 100th win of his coaching career.
The LSU pitching staff pitched well despite four fielding errors and two passed balls that led to three of the four McNeese State runs.
LSU starter Hunter Gomez, pitching a mid-week game because of a change in the weekend lineup, pitched seven innings and was not involved in the decision after giving up two runs (one earned). Reliever Heath McMurray (2-2) received the loss after pitching 1 2/3 innings and allowing only one run and two hit, the hits in the 11th, while striking out five and walking three.
When LSU travels to Kentucky for its final SEC road series, Bo Pettit (4-3, 4.39 ERA) will start Friday, Brian Tallet (9-3, 3.91) will start Saturday and Gomez (7-0, 2.81) will start Sunday.
The Tigers got on the board first in the top of the sixth inning when Mike Fonenot was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, advanced to second on a wild pitch and eventually scored on a fielder’s choice by Hawpe.
LSU scored two more in the top of the eighth when Cedrick Harris extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a double and later scored. With the bases loaded and one out, Johnnie Thibodeaux hit what looked to be a grand slam, however, the ball was caught above the fence by Parker. The sacrifice fly also became a double play as Blair Barbier failed to get back to first base on the long fly ball. LSU then led 3-0.
LSU committed three errors and a balk in the bottom of the eight inning to allow McNeese to cut the lead to 3-2 and put the tying run in scoring position. However, Tiger reliever Shane Youman got the second out of the inning on a pick off, and, after walking the next batter, was relieved by Weylin Guidry who struck out the first batter he faced to end the threat.
The Cowboys put the potential winning run on base in the ninth as Guidry allowed a single to David Montiel and a walk before being lifted in favor of Heath McMurray with one out. McMurray put both runners in scoring position with a passed ball charged to catcher Ryan Jorgensen before striking out the Cowboy’s No. 9 hitter for the second out.
Parker, who hit a home run in the first game between the two teams, was intentionally walked to load the bases and bring Guillory to the plate. Jorgensen allowed another passed ball on the first pitch to score Montiel from third and tie the game. With first base open, Guillory walked and brought Stuart Landreneau to the plate with the bases loaded again. McMurray struck him out looking to send the Tigers and Cowboys to extra innings for the second time this season.