BATON ROUGE — Wally Pontiff’s single with one out in the bottom of the ninth capped a three-run rally as LSU opened the Smoke Laval era with a 10-9 victory over Birmingham-Southern in the season opener for both teams Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
Game two of the three-game weekend series is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. The Tigers will send sophomore left-hander Lane Mestepey (11-3, 3.75 ERA in 2001) to the mound against BSC right-hander Jon Renfro (4-0, 3.23 in 2001).
Mestepey was the 2001 Southeastern Conference and national Freshman of the Year, and led the SEC in wins and ERA.
Pinch hitter Dustin Hahn reached on a throwing error by Scott Asher to start the ninth, and after Jason Vargas walked, Rocky Scelfo reached on a bunt single to load the bases. Sean Barker, who went 4-for-6 on the night, laced a shot between a pair of Panther fielders to right to tie the game, then Pontiff’s fly went over the head Adam Pease ended the game.
The rally would not have been necessary had the Tigers not give up five runs to BSC in the eighth inning that allowed the Panthers to take a 9-7 lead. Weylin Guidry, the Tigers’ third pitcher of the game, started the eighth inning on the wrong foot by walking Cory Hamrick, then giving up a 430-foot home run to Connor Robertson, who launched the first pitch over the 15-foot high fence in center field to cut the LSU lead to 7-6.
Guidry walked Ryan Griffith and gave up a sacrifice to Pat Mizerany before being replaced by Brian Wilson. Wilson walked Mac Godwin and gave up a single to David Driskill to load the bases before striking out Michael Wydner for the second out. Adam Pease tapped back to the mound, and he beat Wilson’s throw to first to allow Griffith to score the tying run, and the problems were compounded when Wilson’s throw went wide of the bag, allowing pinch runner Ryan Sciacca to come home with the go-ahead run.
First baseman Blake Gill also committed an error on the same play when his throw skipped the backstop, scoring Driskill with an insurance run.
LSU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first, as the first three runners reached base. Barker’s single came after David Raymer was hit by a pitch and preceded a walk to Wally Pontiff that loaded the bases. Aaron Hill’s sacrifice fly scored Raymer with the first run of the season, then Barker came home on Jon Prince’s passed ball. Matt Heath and Eric Wiethorn walked to reload the bases, then Darrin Welch lined a two-run single through the left side of the Panther infield to complete the uprising.
BSC battled back to tie the game in the third. Pease doubled home Wydner with the Panthers’ first run, then Robertson singled home Pease to set up Griffith, whose line-drive home run to right erased the Tigers’ early cushion.