BATON ROUGE — The LSU baseball team finished its opening weekend by hammering 17 hits off five Kansas State pitchers to take a 14-8 victory on Sunday afternoon in Alex Box Stadium.
LSU took the series and improved to 2-1 on the season, while Kansas State fell to 3-2 overall.
Mike Fontenot led the Tigers, going 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI including a two-RBI double. Ryan Theriot also added two runs and two RBI after collecting two hits in four at bats, while Wally Pontiff, Todd Linden and Aaron Hill each earned two hits.
LSU’s No. 1-5 hitters combined for 11-of-22 hitting, 11 runs and eight RBI. Every Tiger who made a plate appearance got a hit, as LSU finished with 17. Five errors were the downfall of the afternoon for LSU.
The Tigers used three pitchers, Lane Mestepey (6 IP, 5 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K), Billy Brian (0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 0 K) and Brad David (3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K).
Kansas State once again took an early lead on the Tigers, jumping on freshman starter Lane Mestepey (1-0) for three runs in the first inning. Kasey Weishaar doubled to left field and Mark English was hit by a pitch, setting up a three-run homer by Josh Cavender.
In the bottom of the second, the LSU bats came alive with seven runs on nine hits to chase Kansas State starter Brock Smith (0-1) after 1 1/3 innings.
Todd Linden earn his first hit as a Tiger with a double to open the inning, and then scored on a single by Aaron Hill. Bryan Moore then singled to left to put runners on first and third. Hill then scored on a fielder’s choice by Johnnie Thibodeaux. After a wild pitch send Thibodeaux to second, freshman Trae Duncan drilled a grounder into the left field corner for an RBI double.
Duncan scored when catcher Chris Phillips reached on a throwing error by Wildcat shortstop Osmar Castillo. A single by Ryan Theriot send Phillips to third and Smith to the shower. Righthander Luke Patterson entered in relief of Smith (1.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 0 K) with runners on the corners and no outs.
Mike Fontenot greeted Patterson with an RBI single to score Phillips, and Theriot stole third with Wally Pontiff at the plate to put runners on the corners. Pontiff and Linden hit RBI singles to give LSU a 7-3 lead. A pair of baserunning errors ended a Tiger threat which could have buried the Wildcats.
Kansas State took advantage of three Tiger errors in the third and fourth innings to cut the LSU lead to 7-5.
The Tigers matched the Wildcats with two more runs off Patterson in the bottom of the fourth, as Theriot walked to leadoff and then stole second. He then scored on a double down the right field line by Fontenot. Fontenot came around to score on a ground ball by Linden to go ahead 9-5.
In the bottom of the fifth, LSU added two more runs on a two-run triple by Theriot that scored Moore and Thibodeaux.
Head coach Skip Bertman went to his bullpen to relieve Mestepey after six solid innings of work. Junior Billy Brian made his first appearance a brief one, as the tall righty walked his first two batters and threw a wild pitch before giving up an RBI single to Ty Soto.
Baton Rouge native and Catholic High product Brad David entered to stop the bleeding. After hitting the first batter he faced, David settled down forced Nick Scelfo to fly out to center before striking out Nick Sorensen and J.D. Loudabarger looking to end the inning with an 11-6 lead.
In the top of the eighth, Kansas State cut the lead to three, when Cavender launched a David offering just over the left-field fence for a two-run home run. David, who was making his second appearance of his short career, got the final two outs to end the threat.
LSU loaded the bases on Wildcat reliever Scott Tallman in the bottom of the eighth, Moore grounded out to drive in pinch runner Billy McBride and pinch hitter David Raymer was hit by a pitch. Victor Brumfield and Linden hit back-to-back RBI singles to give LSU a 14-8 lead, but another Tiger was tagged out at home to end the inning.
LSU returns to action on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against Louisiana-Monroe here at Alex Box Stadium.