BATON ROUGE — Leading 5-1 with two outs in the eighth inning, LSU’s bullpen self-destructed, giving up six runs and allowing nine straight batters to reach base before getting the final out of the frame as Auburn rallied for a 7-5 victory over the shell-shocked hosts Saturday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The loss could not come at a worse time for LSU (37-17-1, 18-11 Southeastern Conference) could have moved into a first-place tie in the overall league standings with Georgia (39-16, 19-10), which lost 4-3 to Kentucky today.
LSU’s loss now gives Georgia a share of the league title, the Bulldogs’ first since 1954. UGA can claim the title outright with a win or an LSU loss on Sunday.
LSU must win and the Bulldogs must lose for coach Skip Bertman to claim his eighth SEC tilte in this, his final year at the LSU helm before taking over as the school’s athletic director in July. Regardless of the outcome, LSU will have to settle for the second seed at the SEC Tournament in Birmingham, and will play its opening game Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.
Auburn (34-17, 14-15) remains tied with Alabama (31-23, 14-15) for the final spot in the eight-team SEC Tournament. Auburn, by virtue of their three-game sweep of the ? archrvial Crimson Tide last month, would hold a tiebreaker edge.
LSU (#7 Baseball Weekly, #8 Collegiate Baseball, #9 Baseball America) and Auburn play the rubber match Sunday at 1 p.m. The Tigers’ six senior players will be honored in the traditional Senior Day festivities prior to the game.
After the game, Bertman will be honored after his final regular season game, with several dignitaries scheduled to participate in the ceremonies.
Brian Wilson, who relieved LSU starter Jason Scobie to begin the eighth inning, appeared to have the 5-1 lead protected as he got Trent Pratt to fly out and struck out Brett Burnahm to start the inning.
But he gave up a two-out walk to Jonathan Schuerholz, and then the ball began rolling for Auburn. Javon Moran beat out an infield single to LSU first baseman Bryan Moore, then Mailon Kent doubled past Moore into the right field corner to give Auburn its first run since the second inning and make it 5-2.
Bertman had southpaw Brad David warming in the bullpen, but he instead elected to have Wilson pitch to Auburn’s left-handed slugger, Gabe Gross, and the move backfired when Gross doubled just deep into the left field corner, scoring Kent and Moran and shaving the LSU margin to 5-4.
Weylin Guidry, the Tigers’ erratic former closer, replaced Wilson and immediately gave up a game-tying double to Todd Faulkner, then compounded the problem by yielding a two-run homer to Scott Schade to give Auburn the lead.
Guidry was removed after he walked Justin Christian, but David came in and re-loaded the bases by walking Pratt and Burnham, but Roy Corcoran, LSU’s fourth pitcher of the eighth, finally got out of the jam by retiring Schuerholz on a popup.
LSU trailed 1-0 for most of the game, then exploded in the seventh. Mike Fontenot led off with a single, then was safe at second when Schuerholz booted Moore’s fielder’s choice ground ball. Auburn starter Levale Speigner recovered to strike out Todd Linden, but Zeph Zinsman then put LSU ahead 2-1 with a double high off the center-field fence.
Speigner struck out Matt Heath for the second out of the inning, but he was betrayed by his defense on a fly ball by Sean Barker when Moran dropped it, allowing Zinsman to come home from third. David Raymer followed with an RBI single, then the game was delayed as lightning continued to strike around the park, and heavy rain followed less than five minutes later.
The game was held up for a total of two hours and 23 minutes, but when it resumed, LSU immediately shook of the rust by plating its fifth and final run of the inning on Ryan Theriot’s RBI double. All five runs in the inning were charged to Speigner, although only one of them was earned due to the errors.
Auburn took the lead in the second as Pratt’s two-out single scored Faulkner, who led off with a single and went to second on Scobie’s wild pitch.
Between scoring, the game was a showcase of great defensive plays, as both teams combined for five double plays in the fourth through sixth frames.