BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Matt Heath went 3-for-4 with a two-run triple and a home run as LSU opened defense of its Southeastern Conference tournament championship in spectacular fashion with a 10-0 rout of Florida on Wednesday afternoon at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
The game was called after seven innings by the SEC Tournament’s 10-run rule.
LSU (38-18-1) advances to a winner’s bracket game at 5 p.m Thursday against Ole Miss (37-19-1), which opened the tournament Wednesday morning with a 17-6 pummeling of Tennessee. Tennessee (41-16) and Florida (33-24) open Thursday’s action with a 10 a.m. elimination game.
Heath, who played his first two seasons for Florida and coach Andy Lopez, got LSU’s attack going with his second-inning triple that ignited a seven-run inning, then added a single in the third and a leadoff home run in the fifth, he just missed the cycle when he filed out in the sixth.
Amazingly, all nine of the Tigers’ runs in the early innings (seven in the second, two in the third) came with two outs.
“We needed to come out and put together a complete game, and we did that,” said LSU second baseman Mike Fontenot. “We needed to come out and do some good things, and we did, especially with clutch hits with two outs.”
Bryan Moore led off the second with a single, but Florida starter Keith Brice retired Todd Linden on a fly ball and struck out Sean Barker after walking Zeph Zinsman. On a 2-1 pitch, Heath hit a towering fly ball well over the head of Gator center fielder Matt Goss, and Zinsman and Moore easily scored to make it 2-0.
Heath would score on David Raymer’s double into the left-center field gap, and aftrer Brice walked Ryan Theriot, he gave up an RBI single to Wally Pontiff and a three-run homer to Fontenot, driving Brice from the game after just 1 2/3 innings.
Gator reliever Eddie Rojas got Linden to fly out and struck out Zinsman for the first two outs of the third, but then he gave up an infield hit to Barker, another single to Heath and a walk to Raymer to load the bases.
Theriot then made Rojas pay with a two-run single that extended the Tiger captain’s hitting streak to 12 consecutive games.
The offensive outburst overshadowed an outstanding effort by Tiger pitcher Jason Scobie, who threw a complete game shutout, the first by an LSU hurler since Brian Tallet at Kentucky last May 5. Scobie yielded just three singles as he improved to 4-1 on the season.
“LSU took great advantage of our inability to get routine outs, and they scored nine of their runs with two outs,” Lopez said. “Scobie did a great job against us, and they played a great game while we played very poorly.”
The victory was LSU’s 14th consecutive post-season triumph, dating back to last year’s SEC Tournament. The Tigers have not lost in post-season play since getting swept by Alabama in the 1999 NCAA super regional at Tuscaloosa.
“Jason did a great job, as he was able to work both sides of the plate, and his fastball was excellent,” LSU coach Skip Bertman said. “Hopefully, we can continue to play well, because it seems like our best weapon has been the other team playing poorly.”
LSU will throw SEC Freshman of the Year Lane Mestepey (9-3, 3.61) in Thursday’s outing against Ole Miss, who counters with right-hander Chad Yates (9-2, 3.29). Mestepey has lost three of his last five outings, including Sunday’s 9-7 loss to Auburn, when he gave up five runs in relief.