HOUSTON — Wally Pontiff’s bases-clearing double capped a five-run sixth inning and Lane Mestepey gave LSU’s depleted bullpen needed rest with a complete game as the Fighting Tigers (8-2) evened their series with the Houston Cougars (5-4) with an 8-4 victory Saturday night at Cougar Field.
The rubber game of the three-game set will be Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be televised in Louisiana on the Jumbo Sports Network, with the game airing in Baton Rouge on WB-10.
Mestepey, who went just 3 2/3 innings last Saturday against Mercer while suffering from the flu, returned to the form that made him the 2001 national Freshman of the Year. The sophomore left-hander pitched his fifth career complete game to get his first win of the year, giving up just one run on six hits over the final seven innings.
LSU (No. 3 ESPN/USA Today and Collegiate Baseball, No. 5 Baseball) which fell behind 4-0 in Friday’s series opener and had given up he final five runs of that game, and the Tigers found themselves in the same hole in this game until their uprising in the sixth.
Matt Heath led off with a single, then he would score LSU’s first run of the game when Jason Vargas tripled into the right field corner.
Vargas would then score on Blake Gill’s RBI single up the middle, a hit that chased Flores from the game. Reliever Brian Henderson gave up a single to Eric Wiethorn, then Darren Welch was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no out.
Ryan Wagner came in for Brian Henderson and struck out David Raymer and J.C. Holt, then got a full count on Pontiff. The LSU captain drove a high fly to the right-center field fence, and the ball fell between Cougar fielders Michael Bourn and Anthony Scalise to score all three runners and put the Tigers ahead for the first time in the series, 5-4.
The Tigers weren’t through, as an error by Gabe Cooley on Rocky Scelfo’s grounder in the eighth would led to a run on Sean Barker’s RBI single, then Raymer added a two-run double in the ninth.
The Tigers ended the game with a season-high 16 hits, as Gill and Barker each went 3-for-5.
Three of the first four Houston batters reached on base hits, with Chris Snyder’s single scoring Gabe Lucas for a 1-0 Cougar lead. Houston would add two more runs in the second, as back-to-back singles by Cole Bruce and Scalise led to an RBI ground ball by Bourn that Pontiff turned into an error to score Bruce, with Scalise coming across on a grounder by Hyung Cho.
Houston would score only once more, on Jesse Crain’s double in the fourth that plated Scalise for a 4-0 Cougar lead.
LSU did not get a runner past second base until the fourth, when Pontiff and Barker had back-to-back singles to start the frame, but Gill grounded into a double play to leave the Tigers scoreless. The Tigers would get another chance in the fifth, but for the third time in the series, LSU left the bases loaded as Barker hit into a force play for the third out.