BATON ROUGE — Jason Vargas’ pinch-hit grand slam highlighted a six-run seventh inning as LSU (5-1) overcame a 6-2 deficit to rally for a 9-6 victory over Mercer (3-5) Saturday at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (No. 2 ESPN/USA Today, No. 3 Collegiate Baseball, No. 5 Baseball America) will go for the three-game sweep Sunday at 1 p.m. The game is scheduled to be televised on a tape-delay basis in the Baton Rouge area on Cox Cable Channel 4 at 7 p.m.
Trailing 6-3 entering the seventh, Bears starter Brett Jarrett retired leadoff hitter David Raymer, but Jarrett then yielded a triple to Rocky Scelfo and walked J.C. Holt and gave way to reliever Jason Stone.
Stone got Sean Barker to fly to right, but Scelfo scored on the sacrifice fly to make it 6-4. Holt swiped second and Eric Wiethorn then delivered a pinch-hit single to plate Holt and cut the Bears’ lead to 6-5.
Stone walked Wally Pontiff and Matt Heath to load the bases, and with Jason Columbus announced as a pinch hitter for Blake Gill, Mercer brought in right-hander Brian Jones to face Columbus.
But LSU countered by sending the left-handed hitting Vargas to face Jones. Vargas worked a full count before blasting a fastball over the scoreboard in right-center to put the Tigers on top for the first time in the game.
It was the first career hit for Vargas, a true freshman from Apple Valley, Calif., and the Tigers’ first grand slam since last May 1 by Heath at New Orleans.
Mercer scored five of its six runs off of LSU starting pitcher Lane Mestepey, the 2001 SEC and National Freshman of the Year.
The Bears jumped on the Tigers for three runs in the top of the first.
Jason Gaines led off with a double, and then he would score when Mestepey threw badly on David Harwell’s bunt single.
The error proved inconsequential, as Harwell would come home on Kyle Levengood’s double. Mestepey settled down and retired the next two batters, but Jarrod Lynch would bring home Levengood with an RBI single.
Mestepey lasted 3 2/3 innings, tying for the shortest outing in his career. The left-hander gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits.
LSU scored single runs in the first and third on sacrifice flies by Barker and Pontiff, but Mercer extended the lead back to 5-2 in the fourth as Gaines singled home Hurst, who led off the inning with a triple, before Gaines scored on a base hit by Harwell.
Tiger reliever Clay Harris gave up a run in the fifth but settled down from there, working the final 5 1/3 innings to earn his first career LSU victory.