BATON ROUGE — LSU pitcher Bo Pettit turned in the Fighting Tigers’ second consecutive complete game as LSU rallied from a 2-0 deficit to clinch its Southeastern Conference series with Florida, 3-2 on Saturday at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (13-7, 2-0 SEC) will look for its second consecutive weekend sweep in the series finale Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Sunday’s game will be televised in Louisiana by the Louisiana Sports Network and Cox Sports Television, and the game will be available in other SEC markets on Comcast Sports Southeast.
Pettit, a fifth-year senior right-hander from Houston, won his third consecutive start with his fifth career complete game, holding the SEC’s top offensive team to just four hits while keeping his ERA at 1.57. Pettit threw 82 of his 116 pitches for strikes, striking out eight, walking none and retiring Florida’s final 10 batters of the game.
In two games in the series, Florida (15-5, 0-2), which came in to the weekend hitting .356, has mustered nine hits and two runs.
LSU (No. 16 Baseball America, No. 18 Collegiate Baseball, No. 25 ESPN/USA Today), which pounded out 17 hits in Friday’s 9-0 victory, could muster just three hits in five innings off of Florida starter Justin Hoyman before putting together a game-tying rally in the sixth.
Clay Harris’ one out double and an infield hit by Quinn Stewart put runners on first and second, and then Harris moved to third on Ryan Patterson’s fielder’s choice ground ball to third base.
Patterson moved up to second on a passed ball by Florida catcher Brian Rose, and then Matt Liuzza bounced a single up the middle past the pitcher’s mound to score Harris and Patterson and tie the game at 2-2.
Pettit retired the side in order in the top of the seventh, and LSU then made its move to score the winning run. J.C. Holt and Aaron Hill led off with back-to-back singles, and then Gator reliever Adam Sanabria got Ivan Naccarata to hit into a fielder’s choice, leaving runners on the corners with one out.
Sanabria walked Blake Gill to load the bases, then Harris lifted a fly ball to medium deep center field to easily score Holt with the go-ahead run.
Hoyman fell to 3-1 on the year, giving up three runs (two earned) on eight hits in six-plus innings.
Pettit held the Gators (No. 16 Collegiate Baseball and ESPN/USA Today) hitless through the game’s first 3 2/3 innings until Florida’s leading hitter, Ben Harrison, lined a triple into the right-center field gap. Florida scored its first run of the series one batter later when C.J. Smith lined a single to center field that was just out of the reach of a diving effort from LSU center fielder Holt.
Harrison knocked in the Gators’ second run in the sixth when he doubled home Adam Dowdy, who led off the inning with a base hit and moved to second on Jonathan Tucker’s sacrifice bunt.
Florida (15-5, 0-2) 000 101 000– 2 4 0
LSU (13-7, 2-0) 000 002 10x– 3 8 1
Justin Hoyman, Adam Sanabria (7) and Brian Rose; Bo Pettit and Matt Liuzza.
WP–Pettit, 3-0.
LP–Hoyman, 3-1.
2B–Florida: Ben Harrison (6); LSU: Clay Harris (5).
3B–Florida: Harrison (1).
T–2:15.
A–7,698 (paid); 4,430 (actual).