BATON ROUGE — Mike Fontenot went 4-for-4 with two home runs, three RBI and three runs scored to lead LSU past Alabama, 11-4, in game one of the three-game weekend series here in Baton Rouge’s Alex Box Stadium. Here is the play-by-play from game one.
LSU improved to 38-16 overall and 18-9 in SEC play, moving into first place in the Western Division after Mississippi State (16-9) lost to Auburn, 6-3. Alabama fell to 35-19 and 15-13 in conference play.
After settling down from six early walks, LSU starter Brian Tallet pitched brilliantly in picking up his 11th win of the season against three losses. The lefty allowed four runs on six hits over eight innings while striking out six.
Alabama’s Scott Murphy received the loss and fell to 7-2.
Fontenot, the Tigers’ freshman second baseman from Slidell, hit a two-run homer in the sixth to help LSU regain the lead, 5-4, and then homered with one out in the seventh to give the Tigers an 8-4 lead.
LSU, which went 1-4 against Alabama last year, including a two-game sweep in the NCAA Super Regional, took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on Blair Barbier’s solo home run and an RBI single by Jeremy Witten, but the Crimson Tide tied it in the fourth on Casey Lambert’s two-run double.
Bo Pettit, who was scheduled to pitch Saturday’s game two will not pitch this weekend as he nurses a sore shoulder.
Hunter Gomez will pitch game two for LSU Saturday at 2 p.m.