BATON ROUGE — Houston used a four-run sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie with LSU as the Cougars went on to a 7-2 victory over the Fighting Tigers on Saturday at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (5-4) has now lost four of its last five games since starting the season 4-0, while Houston (3-5) had lost four of its previous five outings before winning on Saturday.
The series, reduced from three games to two when Friday’s game was canceled by heavy rain in Baton Rouge, concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.
Jake Tompkins (0-1) started the Houston sixth by hitting Brett Cooley, and a single by Thanos Papavisiliou moved Cooley to third. Hyung Cho’s single scored Cooley with the tiebreaking run, and a sacrifice bunt by Stuart Musselwhie left Cho and Papavisiliou on second and third.
Sam Mitchell’s base hit to left field scored Papavisiliou, and when Ryan Patterson’s relay throw went to the backstop, Cho scored to make it 4-1.
Tompkins, who gave up five runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings, faced only one more batter after Mitchell’s hit, giving up an RBI single to Kevin Roberts before being replaced by Billy Sadler.
In three starts this season, Tompkins has given up 12 runs and 18 hits in 18 1/3 innings as his ERA now stands at 4.91.
Cooley was 2-for-3 to pace the Cougars, as eight different Houston players collected a hit.
Houston broke the scoreless tie in the top of the third when Gabe Lucas launched a one-out home run off the scoreboard in right-center field. At first, the ball appeared to be playable for LSU right fielder Jon Zeringue, but the ball got into a wind gusting as high as 30 miles per hour, and the ball carried over the fence.
The 1-0 score held until the fifth. Will Harris led off the LSU half of that inning with a single, and advanced to second when center fielder Mitchell bobbled the ball. Harris moved to third on Dustin Weaver’s sacrifice bunt and scored on J.C. Holt’s sacrifice fly, just beating the throw of left fielder Lucas to the plate.
Houston starter Danny Zell, the only Cougar pitcher with a victory this season, improved to 3-0 by limiting LSU to two runs (one earned) over six innings. Ryan Wagner closed the game with three scoreless innings to notch his first save of the season.
Zeringue, who was the only LSU player with two hits, doubled into the right field corner in the bottom of the sixth to score Patterson from first base, but that would be as close as the Tigers got.
Houston scored two unearned runs in the eighth, aided by an error on Sadler, who threw wide of first base on Mitchell’s ground ball back to the mound. Sadler’s error was LSU’s fourth of the game.
Houston (3-5) 001 004 020– 7 9 1
LSU (5-4) 000 011 000– 2 6 4
Danny Zell, Ryan Wagner (7) and Nick Bott, Brett Logan (7); Jake Tompkins, Billy Sadler (6) and Dustin Weaver.
WP–Zell, 3-0.
LP–Tompkins, 0-1.
S–Wagner (1).
2B–LSU: Jon Zeringue (3).
HR–Houston: Gabe Lucas (1).
T–2:50.
A–7,249 (paid); 2,674 (actual).