BATON ROUGE — LSU pitcher Bo Pettit made his first victory in one month a special one, firing a complete game four-hit shutout as the Fighting Tigers (No. 7 ESPN/Baseball Weekly, No. 8 Collegiate Baseball, No. 9 Baseball America) opened Southeastern Conference play with a 6-0 victory over Vanderbilt Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (14-6, 1-0) will look to win their fourth straight game over the Commodores (11-4, 0-1) Saturday at 2 p.m., as LSU will start ace left-hander Lane Mestepey (3-1, 3.03) against Vanderbilt right-hander Jeff Little (3-1, 4.03).
Saturday’s game will be also be televised on a tape-delay basis in Baton Rouge starting at 9 p.m. on WGMB-Fox 44.
LSU men’s basketball coach John Brady will throw out the first pitch prior to Sunday’s 11:30 a.m. contest. Brady’s squad hosts Ball State Tuesday at 7 p.m. in a second-round game of the Owens-Corning National Invitation Tournament.
Pettit, a junior right-hander from Houston, dropped decisions to Houston and Long Beach State and took a no-decision against Louisiana-Monroe since his last win on February 15 against Mercer. Pettit worked past the eighth inning for the first time in his 32 career outings, throwing 141 pitches and tying a career high with 12 strikeouts, his third game this year with double-figure strikeouts.
Pettit is the first LSU pitcher to throw a complete game shutout of nine innings since Brian Tallet blanked Kentucky 9-0 on May 5, 2000. LSU had a combined nine-inning shutout last year against Kansas St., and Jason Scobie threw a seven inning shutout against Florida in last year’s SEC Tournament in a game called by the 10-run rule.
Pettit faced trouble in each of the final two innings. He issued a two-out walk to Jonathan Douillard and gave up an infield single to pinch hitter Chris Broadus in the eighth, but he left two runners stranded by getting Karl Nonemaker to ground into a force play.
In the ninth, Pettit also got two runners on by walking Tony Mansolino and giving up a hit to John Kaye, but Wally Pontiff made a diving stab of Nicolas’ line drive to end the game.
The only time Vanderbilt had a runner at second base in the first seven innings was in the second when Cesar Nicolas led off with a single and advanced on John Prothro’s ground ball back to the mound.
After getting just one run off of Louisiana-Lafayette ace left-hander Justin Gabriel on Tuesday, the Tigers touched Vanderbilt ace southpaw Jeremy Sowers for six runs on nine hits in handing Sowers his first collegiate loss. Louisville native Sowers was the first-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds in June 2001.
Aaron Hill, who was making just his second start in a month at shortstop thanks to a separated shoulder, got the Tigers going when he led off the first with a double just inside third base. Hill advanced to third on Eric Wiethorn’s chopper to shortstop, then scored on Wally Pontiff’s sacrifice fly.
Sowers picked off Hill for the second out of the third inning, and after allowing a single to Eric Wiethorn, it appeared Sowers would get out of the inning by catching Wiethorn leaning off of first base.
However, first base umpire Steve Manders called Sowers for a balk, moving Wiethorn to second and keeping the inning alive. The balk proved to be very costly, as Pontiff slammed Sowers’ next offering over the right-center field fence for a two-run homer, Pontiff’s third of the season, making it 3-0.
Pontiff kept his hitting streak alive at 12 games, and his average now stands at .581 (25-for-43) during the string, bringing his season mark to .435.
Sean Barker went 3-for-4 and capped scoring with a three-run homer in the eighth to drive Sowers from the contest. It was Barker’s first home run since February 12 against Southeastern Louisiana.