NEW ORLEANS — Bo Pettit pitched five innings of one-hit ball, while LSU hit season-high four home runs as the Fighting Tigers (21-13) won their fifth game in their last six outings with a 9-5 victory over Tulane (18-17) Wednesday night in front on an NCAA record crowd of 27,673 (paid) at the Louisiana Superdome.
The actual crowd of 25,101 also broke the former NCAA attendance mark of 24,859, which was set for a 1999 College World Series session that featured games between Miami and Alabama and Rice and Oklahoma State.
The Tigers return to Southeastern Conference action on Friday at 6:30 p.m. when they host Georgia (18-11, 8-4 SEC) in the first of a three-game series. Georgia, who currently leads the SEC’s East Division by a game and a half over South Carolina, split a pair of games with top-ranked Clemson on Tuesday and Wednesday, with each team winning on its home field. LSU enters the weekend at 5-6 in SEC play, just one-half game ahead of Arkansas for the eighth and final berth in the SEC Tournament to be held in May at Birmingham.
LSU appeared to be ready to break the game open in the first, as Rocky Scelfo drew a leadoff walk and Aaron Hill singled to put runners on first and second. However, the Tigers would realize just one run out of the frame, as Wally Pontiff grounded into a double play before Sean Barker doubled just inside the third base bag to score Scelfo.
Meanwhile, Pettit, a junior from Houston, was having little difficulty with the Green Wave order. He started the game by striking out Jon Kaplan, then got four ground ball outs before fanning Gerald Clark to end the second.
Hill, who came in hitting .500 in the Tigers’ last 10 games, quickly gave LSU a 3-0 lead in the third with a two-run home run off of Tulane starting pitcher Kris Kline (1-2). Kline would leave the game one batter later after giving up a double to Wally Pontiff, yielding three runs on five hits in 2 2/3 innings.
Tulane’s defense gave the Tigers the opportunity to score two more runs in the fourth. With two out and runners on first and second, Tommy Manzella couldn’t handle Rocky Scelfo’s routine ground ball, an error that became deadly when Hill laced a two-run single into right-center.
LSU broke the game open in the fifth with a barrage reminiscent of the late 1990s teams that hit more than 100 home runs in four consecutive years. The Tigers blasted three solo home runs in the inning, as Barker led off the inning by going deep to left-center, then Jason Columbus and Chris Phillips followed later in the frame with back-to-back blasts, the first time a pair of LSU players have hit consecutive home runs this year.
Pettit, who retired the first 12 batters he faced and did not allow a ball to be hit out of the infield in the first four innings, finally walked Michael Aubrey to start the fifth, and then gave up a single to Anthony Giarratano. But Pettit got out of the jam quickly by inducing a double play ground ball from Clark and striking out Madden to end his final inning and improve to 4-5 on the year.
Back-to-back base hits by Aaron Feldman and James Jurries, along with a throwing error by LSU reliever Clay Harris, allowed the Wave to score its first runs of the game on a two-run single by Aubrey. The Wave would add three runs in the ninth on a bases-clearing double by Clark, but any hope of a Tulane rally died when Clark was caught with too big of a turn around second.