BATON ROUGE, La. — Jeremy Vaughn pitched a three-hit shutout, and Alabama used an eight-run third inning to crush LSU, 14-0, in the regular-season finale for both teams Sunday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
Despite the loss, the Tigers (39-19, 19-10) won the SEC Western Division title when Mississippi State lost at Auburn, 9-5. LSU faces Georgia in the first round of the SEC Tournament Wednesday at 1.
Vaughn needed just 104 pitches to subude the Tigers, as he allowed only two LSU runners to reach second base, walked none and struck out two in improving to 6-2 on the year.
The shutout was the first suffered by LSU since a 9-0 loss to Ole Miss on May 9, 1998, and the first at Alex Box Stadium since a 4-0 loss to Alabama on April 28, 1995. It also ties the record for the worst shutout loss in Skip Bertman‘s 17-year tenure, joining a 14-0 loss at Miami in 1984.
Leading 2-0 after an RBI single by Brent Boyd and a Sam Bozanich RBI double inthe first, the Tide put the game away with their big third frame.
Darren Wood led off with a single, and walks to Boyd and Bozanich loaded the bases and drove Heath McMurray (2-3) from the game. Kelley Gulledge greeted Trey Hodges with a double over the head of Cedrick Harris in center. Ben King plated another run with an RBI grounder to second, and Jeremy Brown and Casey Lambert added RBI singles to send Hodges to the showers. Billy Brian, the third Tiger reliever of the frame, gave up an RBI double to Wood to complete the bombing.
The only drama that remained was whether or not Wood would hit for the cycle in the second time in his career, and he put that to rest in the fifth, leading off with a home run over the scoreboard in right-center.