ATHENS, Ga. — Baton Rouge native and Catholic High product Brad David pitched two scoreless extra innings and LSU benefited from three Georgia walks and an error in the top of the 11th to take a 5-3 victory over the No. 20 Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon.
LSU (13-5-1, 1-1 SEC) broke a four-game winless streak dating back to a 15-7 victory over Arizona State one week ago. The Tigers also won in extra inning for the first time in its past six tries, all in 11 innings. Georgia (10-3, 1-1 SEC) won game one of the weekend series, 8-7, in 11 innings.The two teams will finish the this first SEC baseball weekend with a noon CST start on Sunday.
David (1-0) won his first game as a Tiger after allowing only two hits in two innings pitched while striking out three. Georgia’s Jeremy Brown received to the loss after pitching three innings and giving up two runs (one earned) on one hit, while walking four and striking out four.
The Nos. 7-9 hitters in the LSU lineup — Matt Heath, Ray Wright and David Raymer — accounted for seven of LSU’s 10 hits as Raymer was 3-for-5 and Heath and Wright were each 2-for-4. These three scored four of LSU’s five runs and drove in three RBI.
LSU gave up two unearned runs in the bottom of the first to give Georgia a 2-0 lead
Heath doubled and advanced to third on a ground ball out by Wright and then scored on a single by Raymer to cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the fifth.
The Tigers took the lead, 3-2, in the top of the seventh with back-to-back home runs by Heath and Wright on the first two pitches of the inning off Georgia starter Scott Murphy. However, after Raymer singled and slid under the tag on a Ryan Theriot fielder’s choice, the Bulldogs recorded three straight outs to strand the runners and end the inning.
After LSU squandered a bases-loaded one-out situation in the top of the eighth, Georgia’s Mark Neufeld doubled off LSU starter Lane Mestepey to open the bottom of the inning and then advanced to third on a groundout. Jeff Keppinger then hit an RBI single to center to tie the game at 3-3. With one out, Georgia put runners on the corners with another line-drive single, which brought on Weylin Guidry. Guidry, who suffered a contusion to his leg which forced him to leave Friday night’s game, struck out Adam Swann to end the inning.
Mestepey pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and three runs (one earned) while walking three and striking out six.
Brown entered to start the ninth and struck retired the Tigers in order before Guidry did the same in the bottom of the frame, sending the game to extra innings.
LSU scored two runs with only one hit in the top of the 11th, as Brown walked three in the inning. With one out Raymer doubled to left followed by back-to-back walks to Theriot and Wally Pontiff to load the bases for Zeph Zinsman. Zinsman struck out for the fourth time on the day before Brown walked Bryan Moore to drive in Raymer and give LSU a 4-3 lead. A fielding error by Keppinger at shortstop allowed Theriot to score and gave LSU a 5-3 lead.
In the bottom of the 11th, David allowed a leadoff single before getting back-to-back fielder’s choices for the first two outs. He struck out Blake Bodenmiller for the final out.