BATON ROUGE — LSU used an eight-run barrage in the fifth to bust open a tie game en route to a 10-2 victory over Winthrop in the opener of a three-game weekend series on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The Fighting Tigers (9-6) won their third consecutive contest and will go for the series victory over the Eagles (9-4) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. The game was originally slated to start at 2 p.m., but the contest was pushed back 90 minutes to allow fans to attend the LSU-Alabama men’s basketball game at 1 p.m.
LSU (No. 16 Baseball America, No. 18 Collegiate Baseball) and Winthrop were tied 1-1 as the game reached its midway point, but the Tigers then removed any lingering doubt by sending 14 batters to the plate in their biggest single outburst this season.
J.C. Holt started the LSU fifth by swinging at strike three on a low pitch, but the ball got away from Winthrop catcher Chris Leroux, and when Leroux tried to throw Holt out at first, the throw pulled first baseman Bennett Stapf off the bag.
The error opened the floodgates, as Quinn Stewart then broke the tie by launching a two-run home run into the left field bleachers, Stewart’s team high fourth home run of the year.
Aaron Hill and Ryan Patterson followed Stewart with singles, and then Ivan Naccarata extended his hitting streak to 12 games by dropping a bunt single down the third base line to load the bases, marking the end of the evening for Winthrop starting pitcher Chase Edwards (1-2).
Reliever Ryan Chenard was greeted by a two-run bloop single to short left field by Clay Harris to extend the LSU lead to 5-1. The hit parade continued with three consecutive RBI singles by Blake Gill, Dustin Weaver and Bruce Sprowl to make it 7-1 and send Chenard out of the game after failing to retire any of the four batters he faced.
Danny Bean, the Eagles’ third pitcher of the inning, struck out Holt and retired Stewart on a fly ball, but Hill collected his second hit of the inning with an RBI single to complete the onslaught.
The eight runs are the most in an inning for LSU since last February 24 when the Tigers tallied eight times in the sixth inning at Houston.
Six LSU players had at least two hits as the Tigers collected 16 hits, their second highest total of the season. Weaver led the way by going 3-for-4, the first multi-hit game of his LSU career, while Harris, Gill and Sprowl each had two RBI.
Gill put LSU into double figures for the third time this season with a solo home run in the eighth, his first of the year.
In the third inning, it appeared that Winthrop might be the team to put together the big inning. The Eagles tied the game at 1-1 on Bennett Stapf’s RBI double, and LSU starter Brian Wilson then loaded the bases with one out on a walk to Grant Neidenfeuhr. But Wilson worked out of trouble by striking out Daniel Carte and Mark Schmidt on full-count pitches to keep the score tied.
Winthrop had the leadoff batter on in both the fourth and fifth against Wilson, but the Tiger right-hander worked out of both jams by inducing double play ground balls.
Wilson was lifted after LSU’s big inning since he had already thrown 98 pitches in his five-inning stint. He gave up six hits but struck out a season high six and walked one to improve to 3-2 on the season.
LSU relievers retired the next nine batters in order, as Nate Bumstead worked two perfect innings in the sixth and seventh and Jordan Faircloth worked a perfect eighth before giving up a leadoff home run to pinch hitter Jacob Dempsey in the ninth.
Winthrop (9-4) 001 000 001– 2 7 1
LSU (9-6) 010 080 01x– 10 16 1
Chase Edwards, Ryan Chenard (5), Danny Bean (5) and Chris Leroux; Brian Wilson, Nate Bumstead (6), Jordan Faircloth (8) and Dustin Weaver, Matt Liuzza (7).
WP–Wilson, 3-2.
LP–Edwards, 1-2.
2B–Winthrop: Bennett Stapf (4).
HR–Winthrop: Jacob Dempsey (3); LSU: Quinn Stewart (4), Blake Gill (1).
T–2:56
A–7,164 (paid); 3,354 (actual).