BATON ROUGE — Kentucky hit LSU’s bullpen for seven runs over the final two innings, then watched as their bullpen held off the seventh-ranked Tigers for a 9-5 victory in the finale of a three-game Southeastern Conference series Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
For the sixth time since the 2000 season, the Tigers (21-8-1, 8-4) lost on Sunday with the chance to complete a three-game sweep. Kentucky (13-17, 3-9), which broke a six-game SEC losing streak, won for just the third time in 21 games at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU is in action again Tuesday night at 7 p.m. when they host local rival New Orleans. The Tigers have won six straight from the Privateers of the Sun Belt Conference, including 17-2 and 12-2 victories last year. LSU faces South Carolina starting Friday in an important three-game SEC set in Columbia.
Caleb Brock led off the eighth for the Wildcats with an infield single, but he was immediately erased when he was caught attempting to steal second.
Jon Love followed with another single, and pinch runner Taylor McInnis got to second when LSU reliever Weylin Guidry made an errant throw on a pickoffattempt.
Gordon Tyler’s single and a walk to pinch hitter Morgan Embry loaded the bases for Seth Morris, who delievered an RBI single to score McInnis with the go-ahead run, but Kentucky’s attempt to extend the lead was denied when Tyler was cut down at the plate.
Beau Moore followed by lining a single into center, and the play would turn ugly when Wildcat pinch runner Brent Stephens slid hard into LSU catcher Matt Heath, who was blocking Stephens’ path to the plate awaiting a throw from Tiger center fielder David Raymer, which went to the backstop.
Stephens then appeared to shove Heath to the ground, and both benches quickly emptied. After approximately five minutes, umpires restored order without any ejections.
The Wildcats weren’t through, though. With one out in the ninth and runners on second and third, Heath’s pickoff throw to third sailed into left field, allowing Vince Harrison to score. The error proved to be moot, though, asTyler tripled home two runs before Cory Hahn hit a two-run homer, Kentucky’s only round-tripper of the series.
In all, the Wildcats shelled four Tiger relievers for seven runs (all earned) and nine hits over 2 2/3 innings. Roy Corcoran, who threw five scoreless innings of relief in Saturday’s 9-5 LSU victory, took the most damage, giving up five earned runs on three hits in just 2/3 of an inning.
LSU rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth, which would have been the last inning, as the clock had gone well past the 3 p.m. limit for starting a new inning. Mike Fontenot’s two-run homer brought the Tigers to within 9-5,
Kentucky, which scored first in every game in the series, did so again on Spencer Graeter’s sacrifice fly in the top of the third. But the lead was not to last, as Mike Fontenot singled home Heath in the bottom of the frame to tie the game.
The starting pitchers, LSU’s Tim Nugent and Kentucky’s Joseph Blanton, dominated for most of the middle innings, keeping the game tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the sixth, when Todd Linden doubled with two out and then scored when Zeph Zinsman blooped a single into left field just past Caleb Brock.
Nugent, pressed into emergency service as a starter due to injury and illness to scheduled starter Bo Pettit, gave up just one earned run over 6 1/3 innings, and left in the seventh after yielding the tying run on Moore’s grounder to second.
Blanton, who himself served a four-game suspension after intentionally hitting a Tennessee batter last Sunday, worked eight-plus innings to earn his second win of the year.