BATON ROUGE — LSU broke open a 5-5 game with a three-run fifth inning and held on for a 10-7 victory over Florida, completing a sweep of the three-game Southeastern Conference series Sunday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
The sixth-ranked Tigers (17-6-1, 4-2 SEC) are off until Friday at 6:30 p.m., when they head to Starkville, Miss., to begin a three-game series with SEC rival Mississippi State. The Tigers will be looking to reverse last year’s 2-1 series win by the Bulldogs at Alex Box Stadium. LSU took two out of three when the teams last played at Starkville’s Dudy Noble Field in 1999.
After scoring all four runs in Saturday’s 4-3 victory without the benefit of a hit, it was appropriate that LSU would score its three in the fifth with the help of only one hit.
Bryan Moore walked to lead off the inning, and after Aaron Hill was hit by a pitch, Kenny Birch relieved Keith Brice on the mound for the Gators (11-13, 0-6). Birch yielded a single to Todd Linden, then threw wildly on a pickoff attempt, allowing Hill and Moore to score and sending Linden to third. Sean Barker, who replaced Zeph Zinsman at designated hitter, then brought home Linden with a ground ball to second.
The teams traded single runs in the third, then Florida jumped on Tiger starter Jason Scobie and reliever Bo Pettit for four runs to take a 5-1 lead, as Matt Goss doubled home Matt Siegel, then Pat Osborn greeted Pettit with a two-run double and Kevin Estrada followed with an RBI single.
But the Gators’ lead was to be short-lived. Linden started the Tiger rally with an RBI single off of Brice (1-1) to score Moore, and after David Raymer’s ground ball plated Hill, Ryan Theriot doubled home Raymer and Linden with the tying runs on a double.
Linden led the Tigers’ attack by going 3-for-3 with three runs scored, while Barker drove in three runs.
Siegel’s home run just inside the foul pole in the seventh would bring the Gators to within 8-6 in the seventh, but Barker’s two-run double in the bottom of the seventh re-extended the Tiger cushion to 10-6.
Pettit allowed just two runs and struck out three over 3 2/3 innings to earn his second win of the season. Reliever Roy Corcoran finished the game by pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth innings.