BATON ROUGE — LSU pitcher Bo Pettit regained some of his lost confidence by throwing four shutout innings, while Aaron Hill added a two-run home run as the Fighting Tigers (18-12) eased past New Orleans (17-12), 8-1 Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The win gives LSU back-to-back victories for the first time since the Tigers swept Louisiana-Monroe March 8-10. The victory was also the Tigers’ ninth straight over the Privateers dating back to 1998.
LSU will play the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, in an exhibition game Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. at Zephyr Field in suburban New Orleans. The Tigers return to Southeastern Conference play this weekend when they open a three-game series at Auburn starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Pettit, who has been the Tigers’ Friday night starter but failed to get past the fifth inning in losses to Ole Miss and Mississippi State the past two weekends, allowed just two singles in throwing 55 pitches to improve his record to 3-4 on the year.
LSU got Pettit some early support with Sean Barker’s two-run double in the first to score Rocky Scelfo, who led off with a single, and Hill, who drew a walk.
Barker added his third RBI of the game in the third on his infield single just out of the reach of UNO third baseman J.D. Huether.
The Privateers finally got on the board in the sixth off of LSU reliever Brian Wilson, as Chandler Rose led off with a single, and after Donnie Bollich sacrificed Rose to second and Mark Mongahan walked, J.D. Huether doubled off of the center field wall to score Rose to cut LSU’s lead to 3-1.
Jason Vargas relieved Wilson after Huether’s hit, and got a break when Chris Phillips picked Mongahan off of third. Vargas then got pinch hitter R.J. Elbin to ground out to end the inning and would go on to pitch 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief and strike out three. He was pulled in the ninth for Jake Tompkins, denying Vargas a save opportunity.
Eric Wiethorn’s two-run double just off of Huether’s glove in the seventh gave the Tigers some breathing room, and then Chris Phillips added an RBI single later in the inning.
Hill’s home run, his second of the season, came off of Jeff Stander, the Privateers’ fifth pitcher of the night. Hill extended his hitting streak to seven games in the process, leaving his season average at .368, just six points shy of team leader Wally Pontiff at .374.