BATON ROUGE — Led by three doubles and six RBI from first baseman Matthew Brinson, Mississippi State demolished LSU pitching by pounding out 19 hits and rapping six doubles as the Bulldogs cruised to a 15-4 rout of the Fighting Tigers in a Southeastern Conference game at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (16-12, 2-5), which is off to its slowest start in SEC play since former coach Skip Bertman‘s first year in 1984, will try to even the series with MSU (14-8-1, 4-3) Saturday at 2 p.m.
Mississippi State won its third consecutive game from the Tigers, and dating back to their series in 2000, the Bulldogs have scored 55 runs in their last four games in Baton Rouge.
The Bulldogs picked up an unearned run in the first, as leadoff batter Matthew Maniscaclo reached second on an error by Tiger shortstop Aaron Hill and scored two batters later on Brinson’s first double.
The Tigers gained their only tie of the game in the bottom of the second on three straight singles, with Matt Heath’s hit scoring Sean Barker.
LSU had a chance to take an early lead on Bulldog ace pitcher Paul Maholm, but Chris Phillips grounded into a double play to leave the game deadlocked.
MSU picked up on the change in momentum immediately in the third and scored four runs to take the lead for good.
The Bulldogs quickly loaded the bases on an infield hit by Casey Long and walks to Maniscalco and Chad Henry. Back-to-back singles by Brinson and Jason Burkley scored Long and Maniscalco for a 3-1 MSU lead, and after Brent Lewis lined out to Hill, Steve Gendron lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Henry and Brinson scored on Jon Mungle’s single.
LSU showed some life in the bottom of the third. Jon Zeringue and Rocky Scelfo led off with back-to-back singles, and moved up a base on Burkley’s passed ball. Hill laced a single to score Zeringue, then Wally Pontiff lifted a sacrifice fly to score Scelfo.
But that would be the final run allowed by Maholm, who went the distance and scattered 11 hits to move to 5-1 on the season. He would benefit from three double plays by his defense, the most turned against LSU this year.
LSU starting pitcher Bo Pettit was taken out of the game in the fourth after giving up an RBI double to Henry, giving up eight hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Tiger reliever Brian Wilson was able to hold the Bulldogs at bay through the seventh inning by striking out six, but he finally gave out in the eighth, as MSU hit three LSU pitchers for five runs. Maniscalco brought home the first run of the onslaught with a single, then Brinson and Lewis each added two-run doubles in the frame.
Brinson’s third double came as part of a four-run ninth inning, with all runs coming off of Tiger hurler Weylin Guidry.