BATON ROUGE — Aaron Hill launched a two-run home run and Ryan Patterson added two doubles to support another solid pitching performance by Bo Pettit, allowing LSU to clinch its weekend series with Winthrop with an 11-1 victory on Saturday at Alex Box Stadium.
The Fighting Tigers (10-6), who tied a season high with their fourth consecutive victory, can complete their first three-game sweep since opening weekend when the series wraps up on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Tigers have outscored Winthrop (9-5) 21-3 in the first two games of the series. LSU has posted double figures in back-to-back games for the first time since sweeping last year’s regional championship round against Louisiana-Lafayette with consecutive 12-2 victories.
LSU (No. 16 Baseball America, No. 18 Collegiate Baseball) broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth when Hill laced an RBI double just inside the left field foul line to score Ivan Naccarata from first base. Hill moved to third on a fly ball by Blake Gill before coming home on Clay Harris’ ground out to give LSU a 3-1 lead.
Patterson led off the LSU fifth with a double to the right-center field gap, and two batters later, Quinn Stewart brought Patterson home with a single to right field over a drawn-in Winthrop infield. Stewart was picked off of first, and after Naccarata walked, Hill launched his second home run of the year into the left field bleachers.
Patterson’s two-run double down the left field line in the sixth scored Bruce Sprowl and Dustin Weaver, who preceded Patterson with back-to-back one-out singles.
Naccarata, who added a two-run home run in the eighth inning, extended his hitting streak to 13 games, while Sprowl went 2-for-3 and has hit safely in his last seven outings.
Winthrop, which lost its third consecutive game, tied the contest in the third on an RBI double by Grant Neidenfeuhr, but the Eagles’ rally was snuffed out when Daniel Carte lined into a double play to Naccarata at third base.
Pettit struggled early in the game, walking Matt Matkvoich and hitting Bennett Stapf to start the game, and a passed ball by Weaver put runners on second and third with one out. Pettit worked his way out of the jam by striking out Daniel Carte and Jacob Dempsey to end the inning.
Pettit struck out nine batters over six innings to improve to 2-0 on the year, retiring the final five batters he faced in order.
True freshman Greg Smith relieved Pettit and pitched three hitless innings to notch his first career save. Smith struck out four and retired nine of the 10 batters he faced, with a two-out error in the seventh accounting for Winthrop’s only baserunner over the final four innings.
Winthrop 001 000 000– 1 5 3
LSU 010 232 12x– 11 11 1
Chris Carter, Kevin Slowey (5), Thomas Olejniczak (6), David Scoggin (8) and Alan Robbins, Grant Neidenfeuhr (8); Bo Pettit, Greg Smith (7) and Dustin Weaver, Shawn French (8).
WP–Pettit, 2-0.
LP–Carter, 0-1.
S–Smith (1).
2B–Winthrop: Grant Neidenfeuhr (3), Jacob Dempsey (5); LSU: Aaron Hill (3), Bruce Sprowl (2), Ryan Patterson 2 (4).
HR–LSU: Hill (2), Ivan Naccarata (2).
T–2:49.
A–7,957 (paid); 4,217 (actual).