BATON ROUGE — Kevin Wheeler’s leadoff home run in the top of the 10th inning broke a 6-6 tie as Kansas went on to an 9-6 victory over LSU on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium, handing the Fighting Tigers (4-1) their first loss of the season.
The Tigers (No. 6 Collegiate Baseball, No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 8 Baseball America) were hoped to continue its best start since beginning the 2000 national championship season. Kansas (7-3) defeated LSU for the first time in four meetings, having been swept in 1990 in Baton Rouge in the only previous series.
The series is scheduled to continue Saturday at 2 p.m., and conclude at 1 p.m. Sunday. Saturday’s scheduled pitching matchup has Kansas junior left-hander Josh Duran (0-1, 3.12) facing LSU junior right-hander Brian Wilson (1-0, 4.76).
Mother Nature could affect Saturday’s game, as an 80 percent chance of rain with possible severe thunderstorms is predicted before the rain is scheduled to end early Sunday morning.
Wheeler, who gave up six runs on eight hits in six innings as the Jayhawks’ starting pitcher, hit the second pitch of the extra frame from LSU closer Brandon Nall into the left field bleachers to leave the paid crowd of 7,326 in stunned silence.
The Jayhawks added an insurance run when Sean Flynn laced an RBI double past the dive of LSU first baseman Blake Gill into the right field corner, scoring Travis Metcalf from first. Flynn added another run for Kansas when he scored on an error by LSU second baseman Ivan Naccarata, who let Lance Hayes’ ground ball get under his glove.
Nall took his first loss of his LSU career. Kansas reliever Ryan Knippschild worked three scoreless innings to earn the win and improve to 2-0.
Quinn Stewart nearly won the game with his opposite field blast to right center in the ninth, but the ball hit the top of the wall and bounced back in for a double, Stewart’s second of the game. J.C. Holt struck out by swinging on three consecutive pitches, and after Aaron Hill was intentionally walked, Blake Gill ground weakly to first base to send the game into extra innings.
The Tigers grabbed the lead in the sixth inning for the first time since the first when Matt Horwath hit an opposite field home run off the scoreboard in right field, his first career LSU round tripper.
But for the second time in the game, the Tigers’ lead could not survive the next Kansas turn at the plate. Lance Hayes led off the Jayhawk seventh with a single, then moved to second on Ritche Price’s sacrifice bunt. Ryan Baty then extended his hitting streak to 10 games and moved Hayes to third with a single before Wheeler’s sacrifice fly knotted the game at 6-6.
LSU grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Stewart’s first career LSU home run, but for just the second time this season, LSU gave the runs immediately back in the top of the second.
The Jayhawks took a 3-1 lead in the top of the second–marking LSU’s first deficit of more than one run this season–when Flynn launched a three-run home run into the left field bleachers.
LSU got single runs in the second and third innings to tie the game, but Kansas immediately struck back to take the lead in the top of the fourth. Spanish led the inning with a ground ball single in the hole between third and shortstop, and then scored from first on Metcalf’s double into the left center field gap between outfielders Holt and Sprowl. Metcalf gave the Jayhawks a 5-3 lead two batters later on Shepard’s sacrifice fly.
Spanish and Metcalf both went 2-for-4 to lead the Jayhawks at the plate, with six other Kansas players collecting one hit each.
LSU tied the game in the fifth on Hill’s two-run home run, his first of the season.
Stewart and Holt were both 3-for-5 to pace LSU’s 13-hit attack, as every player except catcher Matt Liuzza had at least one hit.
Tompkins gave up six runs (five earned) on seven hits in seven innings, throwing 112 pitches, taking his second no decision in as many outings this season.
Wheeler went six innings for the Jayhawks, yielding six runs on eight hits before becoming Kansas’ designated hitter in the seventh and giving way on the mound to Brandon Johnson.
Kansas (7-3) 030 200 100 3– 9 11 1
LSU (4-1) 111 021 000 0– 6 13 3
Kevin Wheeler, Brandon Johnson (7), Ryan Knippschild (8) and Sean Flynn; Jake Tompkins, Billy Sadler (8), Brandon Nall (9) and Matt Liuzza.
WP–Knippschild, 2-0.
LP–Nall, 0-1.
2B–KU: Travis Metcalf (1), Casey Spanish (2), Sean Flynn (1); LSU: Quinn Stewart 2 (3).
HR–KU: Flynn (1), Kevin Wheeler (3); LSU: Stewart (1), Aaron Hill (1), Matt Horwath (1).
T–3:02.
A–7,326 (paid); 3,997 (actual)
Tigers Suffer First Loss in 10 Innings, 9-6