AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn used a three-run second inning and a six-run sixth to run away from LSU, 11-3, Saturday in front of a record crowd of 4,715 at Plainsman Park, evening the teams’ three-game Southeastern Conference series.
LSU (19-14, 4-6) and Auburn (24-9, 6-5) will play the rubber match of the series Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in a game that will be televised live throughout Louisiana on the Jumbo Sports Network (WB-10 in Baton Rouge) and in other SEC markets on Comcast Sports Southeast.
LSU hasn’t won an SEC series since last April at Alabama, and the Bayou Bengals have split the first two games in each of their last five conference sets dating back to last year.
LSU, which ran out to an 8-0 lead through three innings on Friday en route to a 9-4 victory, looked good in the first inning when Aaron Hill hit a one-out home run for a 1-0 lead. It extended Hill’s hitting streak to nine games and was the third home run in the last four games for the LSU shortstop.
LSU pitcher Bo Pettit would soon be in trouble in the second, as he walked Scott Schade and Doug Vines to start the second inning. Tug Hulett then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners, and it would be 1-1 on the same play when Pettit threw wide of first base trying to get Hulett, placing runners on second and third.
Auburn soon grabbed a 2-1 lead on Sean Gamble’s RBI single, but Pettit appeared to calm down by getting Chuck Jeroloman to ground into a fielder’s choice and striking out Javon Moran.
However, Pettit walked Jonathan Schuerholz to give Auburn new life, and the hosts would take advantage when Hulett scored on Chris Phillips’ passed ball.
Pettit (3-5) lost his third consecutive start in SEC play, going a career-low two-plus innings and walking five. In his last three SEC outings, Pettit has given up 17 runs and walked 18 in just 9 1/3 innings.
Gamble led off the Auburn fourth with a single, and he would score on Moran’s single two batters later to make it 4-1. A walk to Schuerholz and an infield hit by Huddleston loaded the bases for Mike Mueller, who lifted a sacrifice fly to plate Moran for another Auburn run.
Moran started Auburn’s sixth inning onslaught with a leadoff home run to the opposite field in right. Schuerholz then drew his school-record fourth walk in a row, and Huddleston followed with a single to put runners on the corners and chase LSU reliever Clay Harris from the game.
David Shank, making his first career SEC appearance, took Harris’ place and struck out Mueller, but he gave up back-to-back run-scoring singles to Schade and Vines, then it became 10-1 when Hulett doubled home Schade and Vines scored when Matt Heath overran the ball, allowing Hulett to reach third.
Lukas Guidroz became the third LSU pitcher of the inning, and finally stopped the bleeding after yielding a sacrifice fly to Gamble by getting Jeroloman to ground out.
Hill added an RBI triple in the seventh and scored on Wally Pontiff’s single. Hill, who leads LSU with a .388 batting average, is hitting .553 (21-for-38) with 13 runs scored and 15 RBI during his hitting streak.