BATON ROUGE — Ulises Cabrera’s RBI double and Sean Luellwitz’ RBI single broke a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning and lifted Vanderbilt to a shocking 7-5 victory over second-ranked LSU in a Southeastern Conference game Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The loss drops the Tigers (28-12-1, 12-7 SEC) into a four-way tie for the overall league lead with Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Tennessee, all of whom were victorious on Friday, and leaves Georgia just one game behind LSU and Vanderbilt (20-21, 7-12) play game two of the three-game series Saturday at 4 p.m.
The big news on this night, however, was the ejection of LSU coach Skip Bertman in the middle of the fourth inning by home plate umpire John Whitaker. The feud started in the top of the fourth, when Bertman said something to Whitaker as he leaving the field after a conference on the mound.
After the Commodores were retired in the top of the fourth, Bertman huddled the Tigers in front of the first base dugout. As the meeting was breaking up, Bertman continued to complain to Whitaker, who warned Bertman then immediately ejected him when the Tiger coach refused to stop.
The ejection sent the crowd of 7,975 into a frenzy, and Bertman stoked the flames even higher as he came out to argue more with Whitaker, turning around his hat and screaming a few more choice words at the arbiter.
Whitaker’s partners, Arthur Schmidt and David Savage, stood back, looking more bemused than anything before Bertman left the field to a standing ovation.
Whitaker certainly didn’t forget the incident, as at times it seemed as if the strike zone for Tiger hitters had suddenly swelled. Whitaker, a Blytheville, Ark., native, was roundly booed on every called strike he made after Bertman’s ejection.
The ejection was the third of Bertman’s 1,178-game career at LSU, and the first in a regular season contest. Bertman was tossed on May 17, 1992 against South Carolina in the SEC Tournament at the Superdome in New Orleans, and again on May 25, 1997 at the NCAA South I Regional at Alex Box Stadium against Long Beach State.
But to the Commodores’ credit, they were able to pin the first loss of the season on LSU ace Lane Mestepey, touching him for seven runs.
Mestepy walked Vandy’s Kevin Geshke to lead off the eighth, then Cabrera lined a shot deep into the right center field gap, and Geshke slid home ahead of David Raymer’s throw home, which was high anyway.
Chris Broadus’ ground ball to first moved Cabrera to third, then Luellwitz followed with a ground ball just under the glove of LSU shortstop Ryan Theriot.
Mike Fontenot’s home run gave LSU an early 1-0 lead in the first, and Mestepey appeared to be in control, facing just one batter over the minimum in the first three innings.
But in the fourth, Broadus and Luellwitz led off with back-to-back singles, and after Ashley Freeman hit into a fielder’s choice, Adam Blue drilled Mestepey for a three-run homer to give the Commodores a 3-1 lead. It was Blue’s first home run of the season and just the third yielded by Mestepy this year.
It took an error for the Tigers to tie the game in the fifth. Theriot scored the first run of the inning on a passed ball, and after the bases were loaded, Blue dropped Johnnie Thibodeaux’s fly ball that would have ended the inning, allowing all three Tigers to score and giving LSU a 5-3 edge.
However, Vandy tied the game in the sixth as Luellwitz scored on a wild pitch and David Wallace’s sacrifice fly scored Blue with the tying run.
Mestepey worked his third complete game of the year, but gave up season highs in runs (7) and hits (10) in taking his first loss.