BATON ROUGE — Wally Pontiff’s three-run home run keyed a 15-hit attack, and a strong relief effort by Roy Corcoran helped LSU hold off Kentucky, 9-5, in a Southeastern Conference game Saturday evening at Alex Box Stadium.
Seventh-ranked LSU (21-7-1, 8-3) moves into a first-place tie in the SEC’s overall standings with Ole Miss (22-8-1, 8-3) and Tennessee (26-5, 8-3), who lost today to Georgia and Auburn, respectively. After dropping two of three to Georgia to open SEC play, the Tigers have won seven of their last eight conference games.
The Tigers can keep their share of the conference lead by completing the sweep of the Wildcats (12-17, 2-9) Sunday morning at 11:30 a.m. CDT.
Sunday’s game was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., but was moved up 90 minutes to accommodate Kentucky’s travel plans.
Corcoran, a junior right-hander from Slaughter, relieved Tiger starter Shane Youman with the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth. Although Corcoran allowed two runners to score in the inning to cut the lead to 7-5 on Caleb Brock’s RBI single and Gordon Tyler’s sacrifice fly, he retired the side in order in the sixth and got out of a potential problem in the seventh by inducing Tyler to hit into an inning-ending double play.
Corcoran (4-1) got another double play ball in the eighth before allowing a walk and a hit with two out in the ninth. He finished his five innings by allowing just four hits in the longest relief outing for an LSU pitcher this season.
Kentucky got out to a 1-0 lead in the second as Jon Love’s two-out double scored Brock, but the Tigers quickly broke out with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second, as back-to-back doubles by Bryan Moore and Todd Linden tied the game before Linden scored on a double play grounder to make it 2-1.
Beau Moore’s one-out triple in the third and a subsequent walk to Spencer Graeter had the Wildcats poised for a big inning, a threat that seemed to be a reality when Ryan Theriot booted a potential double play grounder that would have ended the inning, but instead scored Moore to tie the game.
Youman walked Spencer Preston to load the bases, but got Brock and Tyler to fly out to get out of the jam.
David Raymer and Theriot started the bottom of the third with back-to-back singles, and another base hit by Mike Fontenot gave LSU the lead before Pontiff cleared the right-field fence with his fourth home run of the season to give the Tigers a 6-2 lead.
Wildcat starter Rob Corrado was tagged with the loss, as he gave up 10 hits in three-plus innings in falling to 4-3.
Kentucky coach Keith Madison, who made a presentation to LSU coach Skip Bertman prior to the game to honor the retiring Tiger coach, wasn’t around to see the end. Home plate umpire A.J. Lostaglio ejected Madison after Moore doubled to lead off the bottom of the seventh.
Zeph Zinsman’s sacrifice fly in the seventh and an RBI single by Pontiff in the eighth gave the Tigers some breathing room.