HOUSTON — Rice rode a six-run third inning and the three-hit pitching of Stephen Herce to an easy 6-0 victory over LSU in the opener of an NCAA super regional series Friday night in front of a Reckling Park record crowd of 4,615.
As was the case in last weekend’s regional at Alex Box Stadium, the Tigers’ mandate is crystal clear: win or go home. With a victory in Saturday’s 2 p.m. game, Rice can punch its ticket for its third College World Series berth since 1997, while an LSU victory forces a rubber game for the trip to Omaha at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Since the current format for the NCAA tournament was adopted in 1999, only Rice in 1999 has won a regional through the loser’s bracket and won a super regional after dropping the first game.
The shutout was the fourth suffered by LSU in 206 post-season games, but the second in the last seven days as Louisiana-Lafayette blanked the Tigers 5-0 in the second game of the regional.
Pitchers Lane Mestepey of LSU and Herce fired blanks over the first two innings before the game was delayed by rain for 19 minutes in the top of the third.
LSU’s path to disaster was paved with the leadoff batter in the bottom of the third when Wally Pontiff’s throw on Paul Janish’s ground ball pulled Blake Gill off of the bag.
Austin Davis followed with a double over the head of LSU center fielder David Raymer that moved Janish to third, and then Janish scored the game’s first run when he raced home on Mestepey’s wild pitch. Justin Ruchti then found a hole in the LSU infield to score Davis for a 2-0 Owl lead.
LSU finally got a pair of outs in the frame when Justin Kolhorst sacrificed Ruchti to second and A.J.
Porifrio flied out to Raymer in center, but Mestepey could not limit the damage.
Eric Arnold got the first of four consecutive Owl hits with a double to the gap in left-center field to score Ruchti for a 3-0 lead, and then national Freshman of the Year Vincent Sinisi slapped a single through the right side for another run before scoring on a double by Hunter Brown into the left field corner. Rice’s final run of the onslaught then came home on a triple by Enrique Cruz off the center field fence.
All but one of the runs in uprising were unearned thanks to Pontiff’s error, giving LSU 85 unearned runs allowed on the year, six shy of the school record of 91 yielded in 1994.
The way Herce pitched on this night, the Owls didn’t need the gifts. The junior right-hander allowed LSU just three meager singles as no Tiger baserunner got past first base. Herce struck out a career high 10 and did not allow a walk until the ninth inning as he ran his mark to 13-2.
Mestepey, who took the loss last Saturday against UL-Lafayette, has now dropped back-to-back starts for the first time in his career. Mestepey gave up six runs and nine hits over seven innings as he failed to reach the eighth inning for the first time since April 5 at Auburn, a span of nine starts.
Mestepey and reliever Clay Harris would allow just three hits after the third inning, but the Tigers’ bats couldn’t overcome the early deficit.