BATON ROUGE — LSU freshman pitcher Justin Meier made the most of his first career start in a Southeastern Conference game, limiting defending league champion South Carolina to one run in throwing his first career complete game in the Fighting Tigers’ 5-1 victory on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at Alex Box Staidum.
LSU (20-9-1, 8-1-1) maintained their hold on second place in the overall conference standings, one-half game behind Mississippi St., which improved to 9-1 in league play by defeating Kentucky on Friday. South Carolina (19-11, 4-6) lost its second consecutive game and fell to 1-5 on the road this season and 0-4 in SEC away games.
The series continues on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a game that will be televised by SEC-TV on Fox Sports Net Southwest and Fox Sports Net South. A win will assure the Tigers (No. 10 Collegiate Baseball, No. 12 Baseball America, No. 16 ESPN/USA Today) of their eighth consecutive SEC series victory dating back to last April, when the Gamecocks (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 Collegiate Baseball) won two of three in Columbia.
Meier, a native of Windmere, Fla., gave up 10 hits in his stint, but nine of those hits were singles, as he did not walk a batter and struck out eight to improve to 4-0 on the year and lower his ERA to 1.38.
Meier, who picked up a save last Sunday at Alabama by retiring the final two batters of the game in a 11-10 LSU victory, was starting in place of Brian Wilson, who was injured last Friday at Alabama and is out for at least two weeks.
LSU took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a two-run home run by Ryan Patterson into the left field seats, giving Patterson the team lead in home runs with seven.
The Tigers expanded the lead to 3-0 in the third on J.C. Holt’s double into the left field corner that scored Bruce Sprowl, who led off the inning one batter earlier with a double of his own.
The Gamecocks used three consecutive singles by Bryan Triplett, Trey McDaniel and Justin Harris to load the bases with no out in the seventh and threaten the Tigers’ 3-0 lead.
But the Gamecocks scored their only run of the inning on a double play ground ball by Michael Campbell, as Meier retired pinch hitter Matt Riddle on a tapper back to the mound to end the inning.
LSU got the run back in the bottom of the seventh when Matt Liuzza scored on a fielder’s choice ground ball by Ivan Naccarata that should have been an inning ending double play, but wasn’t when Harris initially bobbled the ball.
Powell led off the top of the second with a double to the center field fence, but Meier settled down and retired the next three batters in order, getting Justin Harris out on a ground ball to second to end the inning.
South Carolina had another chance to get on the board in the fourth when consecutive singles by Powell, Triplett and McDaniel, but Meier held the Gamecocks off the board by inducing Harris to ground into an inning ending double play.
Harris appeared to have possibly beaten Blake Gill’s relay throw, but first base umpire Tony Maners called Harris out. South Carolina coach Ray Tanner sprinted from the third base dugout to protest the call to no avail.
South Carolina starter Steven Bondurant gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits in seven-plus innings but lost for the second time in his last three outings to drop to 3-2.
South Carolina (19-11, 4-6) 000 000 100– 1 10 3
LSU (20-9-1, 8-1-1) 021 000 11x– 5 8 1
Steven Bondurant, Cliff Donald (8) and Landon Powell; Justin Meier and Matt Liuzza.
WP–Meier, 4-0.
LP–Bondurant, 3-2.
2B–USC: Landon Powell (15); LSU: Bruce Sprowl (6), J.C. Holt (4).
HR–LSU: Ryan Patterson (7), Clay Harris (6).
T–2:11.
A–7,660 (paid); 4,591 (actual).