BATON ROUGE — Southeastern Louisiana defeated the LSU baseball team for the first time in 17 meetings, 4-3, as the Lions scored three runs in the top of the eighth inning to hand the Tigers their first loss of the season on Tuesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (3-1), which came back to win two of three games in its final at bat in the opening weekend series with Birmingham-Southern, fell one run short in the ninth and lost to the Lions for the first time since April 23, 1991 (15-2). The 16-game winning streak was the second-longest against all opponents, only topped by the Tigers’ 19-game streak against Centenary.
Tiger starter Chad Vaught pitched six solid innings and struckout eight, but SLU ate up reliever Brad David (0-1) in the eighth for three runs on three hits before Clay Harris came in to end the bleeding.
Offensively, LSU continued to struggled getting extra-base hits, however, freshman designated hitter Jon Zeringue was 3-for-4 with three singles and Sean Barker was 2-for-4 with a ninth-inning home run and two RBI.
The Lions (2-0), who won their first game of the season 14-9 against Southern University on Saturday after going 22-33 in 2001, got off to a hot start against Vaught in the top of the first inning. With one out, Matt Rogelstad and Anthony Krajancic both singled and advanced to second and third on a sacrifice fly and a stolen base. Jake Leba then hit an RBI single to left field to go ahead 1-0. Vaught struck out Jesse Newell to end the inning with runners on first and third.
After an LSU error, Southeastern Louisiana left two more on base in the second before Vaught struck out Rogelstad to stop the early threat.
LSU, which had only one hit off O’Brien in the first four innings, responded in the fifth by sending seven batters to the plate and coming away with two runs on three hits and a costly Southeastern Louisiana error.
With one out, Zeringue singled up the middle and advanced to third when SLU second baseman Chris Rusnak threw the double-play relay into left field. The error on the fielder’s choice allowed Zeringue and redshirt freshman Rocky Scelfo to advance to second and third. Senior center fielder David Raymer picked up his first hit and RBI of the season with a single to right field before senior right fielder Barker singled to drive in Scelfo. LSU led 2-1.
Vaught, who allowed only one run on five hits while striking out eight and walking one in six innings of work, faced only one over the minimum over the next four innings of work before being relieved by David to start the top of the seventh inning. The Tigers led 2-1 when Vaught left the game.
O’Neil was lifted in favor of lefthander Chris Gonzales when he hit Raymer on a 2-2 count and walked Barker with one out in the bottom of the seventh. Gonzales, who ranks in the top 12 in SLU history in strikeouts (156), innings pitched (233) and appearances (50), got LSU junior third baseman Wally Pontiff to pop up to the shortstop before clean-up hitter Aaron Hill popped out to left.
David allowed a leadoff single to No. 1 hitter Russell Taylor to start the eighth. Taylor advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt before David walked Krajancic after taking the count to 0-2.
With a 0-2 count on Rhett Buras, David threw a pickoff attempt into center field, allowing the runners to advance to second and third. Buras worked the count to 2-2 before doubling into the right field corner to drive in Taylor and Krajancic and take a 3-2 lead.
Buras advanced to third when Barker’s throw from right field went astray and he scored on a single by pinch hitter Joey Duhe. David was then taken out of the game in favor of Clay Harris, who got the next two batters out. The damage was done, however, and SLU led 4-2.
With one out in the eighth, LSU first baseman Jason Columbus hit a 400-foot foul ball before earning a walk from Gonzales. Pinch hitter Darren Welch struckout before Zeringue earned his third single of the night to put runners on first second for Scelfo with two outs. The righthander benefited from three wild throws by Gonzales to take the count to 3-1, but popped out to center field to end the inning.
Harris, who pitched 1 2/3 innings of perfect baseball, retired the Lions in order in the top of the ninth to give the Tigers a chance in the final frame against Gonzales.
With one out, Barker hit the Tigers’ first home run of the season into the bleachers in left field to cut the lead to 4-3. Pontiff grounded out to first for the second out before Hill drilled a single through the left side and sent Gonzales to the shower in favor of righthander Jeff Stempel.
Stempel, who gave up a run on two hits in 2/3 of an inning against Southern on Saturday, walked Heath to put runners on first and second against lefthanded pinch hitter Blake Gill. Gill popped out to center on the second pitch to end the game.
LSU returns to action this weekend with a three-game series against the Mercer Bears. Friday night’s game begins at 6:30 p.m.