BATON ROUGE — Aaron Hill tied an LSU school single-game record with three doubles and collected a team season high four hits, and Brian Wilson hurled a complete game, five-hit shutout as the Fighting Tigers made their Southeastern Conference debut a smashing success with an 9-0 victory over Florida on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (12-7, 1-0) has won six of its last seven games and looks to clinch the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. The series finale is set for 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Florida (15-4, 0-1) saw its three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 0-3 away from Gainesville.
Wilson, a junior-right hander, improved to 4-2 with the victory, throwing 79 of his 119 pitches for strikes and holding the SEC’s most potent offense (.356 batting average, 208 runs coming into Friday) in check throughout the contest.
The game is Wilson’s second career complete game shutout, joining a three-hit effort in an 8-0 whitewash of Arkansas last April 27. Florida also suffered its first shutout loss since May 16, 2001, when the Tigers blanked the Gators 10-0 in the opening game of the SEC Tournament in Birmingham, a span of 88 games.
Hill, the Tigers’ junior shortstop and a 2002 United States national team member, became the first LSU player to collect four hits in a game this season, and the 17th player in LSU history to pick up three doubles in one game. Hill also tied a career high by scoring three runs, which he also accomplished last Saturday vs. Winthrop.
The last LSU player to record four hits in a game was J.C. Holt in last year’s Baton Rouge regional championship game versus Louisiana-Lafayette on June 2, and Sean Barker was the last Tiger to record three doubles, doing so last May 4 at Tennessee.
Hill’s effort was part of one of LSU’s best all-round efforts at the plate this season, as the Tigers banged out 17 hits, two shy of the season high of 19 on February 11 at Centenary. Bruce Sprowl was 3-for-5 for his first career three-hit game, while four other LSU players had two hits each.
Wilson looked to be in trouble right off the bat when his errant pickoff throw with one out in the top of the first sailed into the LSU bullpen in right field, allowing Jonathan Tucker to run all the way to third. But Wilson got out of the jam with no harm by striking out Mario Garza and Ben Harrison to end the inning.
The Tigers (No. 16 Baseball America, No. 18 Collegiate Baseball, No. 25 ESPN/USA Today) capitalized on the momentum swing and scored twice in their first at-bat on a two-run single by Ivan Naccarata, scoring Bruce Sprowl, who led off with a single, and Hill, who preceded Naccarata with his first double.
LSU missed an opportunity to widen the lead in the second by leaving runners stranded on second and third with one out, but the Tigers didn’t miss in the third, scoring four runs to widen the lead to 6-0.
The first five Tigers to bat in the third reached safely. Hill started it with a single, and then Naccarata, whose earlier hit extended his hitting streak to 16 consecutive games, laced a triple to the right-center field fence for a 3-0 LSU lead.
Blake Gill then followed Naccarata with a two-run home run to right field to make it 5-0 and drive Florida starting pitcher Connor Falkenbach (2-1) from the game. Falkenbach lasted just two innings plus three batters, giving up five earned runs on eight hits.
Gator reliever Tom Potter was greeted by back-to-back doubles from Clay Harris and Quinn Stewart before finally retiring the next three batters to keep the Florida deficit at 6-0.
LSU added a pair of runs in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Blake Gill and on an error by Gator center fielder Harrison, who overran Harris’ base hit and allowed Gill to score from second base.
Ryan Patterson, who made a spectacular sliding catch of a foul ball in the LSU bullpen in the sixth inning, added his fourth home run in the seventh to tie Stewart for the LSU team lead in home runs with four.
Florida (15-4, 0-1) 000 000 000– 0 5 1
LSU (12-7, 1-0) 204 200 10x– 9 17 2
Connor Falkenbach, Tom Potter (3) and Brian Rose; Brian Wilson and Matt Liuzza.
WP–Wilson, 4-2.
LP–Falkenbach, 2-1.
2B–LSU: Aaron Hill 3 (6), Clay Harris (4), Quinn Stewart (5), Bruce Sprowl (3).
3B–LSU: Ivan Naccarata (2).
HR–LSU: Blake Gill (2), Ryan Patterson (4).
T–2:17.
A–7,835 (paid); 4,774 (actual).