BATON ROUGE — Louisiana-Monroe led off the top of the 11th with a triple and took the lead on an RBI single to salvage a 7-6 victory and crush an LSU comeback attempt on Wednesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
With LSU trailing 5-2, Todd Linden, Johnnie Thibodeaux and Wally Pontiff each blasted two-out home runs in the bottom of the eight inning to take a 6-5 lead into the ninth.
However, ULM (4-0) tied the game in the ninth on a two-out RBI double by senior catcher Ted White, before winning it in the 11th on a triple by Matt Benson and an RBI single by Toby Childers.
LSU reliever Weylin Guidry, who entered to start the 10th inning, received the loss and fell to 0-1 on the season. ULM’s Aaron Dobbins pitched the 10th inning to earn the win and improve to 2-0 in 2000. Robert Carro received the save, his first of the season, by getting Thibodeaux to pop out to right field with runners on second and third in the bottom of the 11th.
LSU (2-2) took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, when Ryan Theriot led off the inning with a walk and was then doubled home by Mike Fontenot. Fontenot would later score on a ground ball out by Linden.
ULM battled back with four runs of their own in the top of the fourth, two of which were unearned off of Tiger starter Tim Nugent.
ULM added its fifth run in the top of the fifth when Tiger reliever Brian Wilson allowed a single to White. White then stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. Jason Lind doubled down the left field line to give ULM a 5-2 lead which lasted until the Tigers’ long balls in the eighth.
LSU returns to action on Friday night when the Tigers take on Houston in game 1 of a three-game series.