BATON ROUGE — Blake Gill’s RBI double with one out in the eighth inning lifted LSU to a 2-1 victory over Northwestern State in the season opener for both teams on a chilly Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The three-game weekend series resumes Saturday at 2 p.m., as the Tigers send junior right-hander Brian Wilson (10-5, 3.54 in 2002) against Northwestern St. senior right-hander Michael Perkins, who was 3-5 with 5.89 ERA last year at Creighton. The series concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday.
J.C. Holt led off the eighth inning by getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, and he moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Quinn Stewart. Holt moved to third on Aaron Gravis’ wild pitch, then scored on a sharp single to center field by Ivan Naccarata.
Aaron Hill followed with a single to left to move Naccarata to second, and Gill then lined the game-winning hit off the right-center field fence over the head of Demons’ right fielder Alonzo Soliz.
The runs were the first for LSU since the eighth inning of last year’s Baton Rouge regional championship game against Louisiana-Lafayette. The Tigers were shut out 6-0 and 3-0 in the super regional at Rice.
For the second consecutive year, LSU (No. 6 Collegiate Baseball, No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 Baseball America) needed a late rally to win their season opener. Last year, Wally Pontiff singled home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in a 10-9 victory over Birmingham-Southern.
Pontiff, who died in his sleep of a heart abnormality last July 24, was honored before the game in a moving pre-game ceremony, where his family was presented with Pontiff’s No. 31 LSU jersey.
The eighth inning heroics helped LSU pitcher Jake Tompkins avoid a loss in a strong outing. Tompkins, a second team All-Southeastern Conference reliever in 2002, went 5 2/3 innings and struck out a career high 11 batters, including five straight in the second and third innings, giving up four singles.
Tiger reliever Billy Sadler picked up the win in his first LSU outing, throwing 1 2/3 innings of scoreless ball and striking out four.
Sadler gave up a base hit to pinch-hitter Blake Jones before giving way to reliever Brandon Nall, and the submariner immediately walked Scott Pittenger to put the tying run on second base. Josh Boop moved the runners up with a ground ball to second, and Tigger Lyles grounded to Naccarata at second to end the game.
The Demons broke the scoreless tie with the help of two LSU errors in the fourth. Soliz drew a one out walk from Jake Tompkins, then advanced all the way to third when Tompkins pickoff throw went into the LSU bullpen in right field.
Jeff Martin then lifted a pop-up behind second base, but Naccarata dropped the ball trying to squeeze it in his glove, leaving runners on the corners with one out.
Soliz scored the season’s first run for Northwestern St. when Tompkins fired a wild pitch just out of the reach of catcher Dustin Weaver, but the Demons were stymied when Hunter Thoms and Nolan Jones struck out to end the inning.
The Demons loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, but Tompkins worked free of the jam by forcing Anatole Vincent to ground back to the mound for a force at the plate, and Soliz took a called third strike to end the inning.
LSU’s only threat of the first seven innings was in the sixth, when the Tigers loaded the bases with one out, only to have Gill ground into a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.
Northwestern St. (0-1)………… 000 100 000– 1 7 0
LSU (1-0)…………………………. 000 000 02x– 2 10 2
Casey Johnson, Aaron Gravis (7) and Jeff Martin; Jake Tompkins, Billy Sadler (6) , Brandon Nall and Dustin Weaver.
WP–Sadler, 1-0.
LP–Gravis, 0-1.
S–Nall (1).
2B–LSU: Blake Gill (1).
T–2:53
A–8,132 (paid); 4,284 (actual).