BATON ROUGE — LSU jumped out to a 9-1 lead through four innings and weathered a late charge by Southeastern Louisiana to claim a 14-8 victory on Wednesday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The win improved the Fighting Tigers, who defeated the Lions for the second time this year, to 8-0 at home this year against in-state opponents and 10-2 overall vs. Louisiana foes.
LSU (27-13-1, 12-5-1 Southeastern Conference) returns to conference play on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in the opener of a three-game series with Tennessee (24-17, 8-10), with games to follow at 6 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
The Tigers (No. 8 Collegiate Baseball, No. 13 Baseball America, No. 17 ESPN/USA Today) hold a one-half game lead over Auburn in the West division and overall league race, with Mississippi State one game behind and Arkansas one and one half games back.
Trailing 9-1, the Lions (13-25) exploded for six runs in the sixth inning, including five off of LSU starter Jason Determann, who had given up just one run on two hits through the first five innings.
SLU strung together four consecutive one-out hits, with back-to-back singles by Graham Martin and Anthony Garibaldi making it 9-3 before an RBI double from Jeff Janzen drove Determann from the game.
Chad Vaught relieved Determann following Janzen’s double and immediately retired Russell Taylor on a ground ball back to the mound, but Garibaldi scored on the play to make it 9-5. Vaught then walked Lenny Mayard, and after a balk moved Mayard and Janzen to second and third, respectively, Blake Gill’s low throw on a routine ground ball resulted in an error, allowing both runners to score and pull SLU to within 9-7.
Vaught finally got out of the inning by retiring pinch hitter Mark Weinmunson on a fly ball to short center field.
LSU got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run single by Jon Zeringue over a drawn-in SLU infield, but the Lions had a chance to draw even closer in the seventh on Janzen’s RBI single that sent Vaught out of the game.
Tiger reliever Greg Smith kept the Tigers ahead 11-8 by striking out Taylor and Mayard to end the inning.
LSU expanded its lead with three runs following the seventh inning stretch, highlighted by RBI doubles from Patterson and Gill.
Patterson, Zeringue and Clay Harris were each 3-for-5 as part of the Tigers’ 15-hit attack, which included a season high seven doubles.
Zeringue led off the bottom of the second with a single and Quinn Stewart followed with a walk. Will Harris hit what looked to be a double play ground ball to Lion shortstop Jason Waguespack, but second baseman Taylor let Waguespack’s throw go through the webbing of his glove. Stewart was safe on Taylor’s error, a boot that allowed Zeringue to score and tie the game at 1-1.
Matt Liuzza’s sacrifice bunt put two runners in scoring position, and then Chad Pendarvis (3-1) hit Bruce Sprowl in the left forearm to load the bases again for Ryan Patterson, whose ground rule double into the right field corner plated Stewart and Will Harris to make it 5-1.
Zeringue and Stewart led off the third with back-to-back doubles, with Stewart’s hit scoring Zeringue before Stewart himself would score on a wild pitch by SLU reliever Brad Miller. The Tigers expanded the lead to 9-1 in the fourth on an RBI double by Clay Harris and a run scoring base hit one batter later by Gill.
Taylor scored SLU’s first run with a solo home run in the second inning, the first earned run allowed in 14 1/3 innings by Determann. Taylor and Janzen went 2-for-4 to pace the Lions at the plate.
SLU (13-25) 010 006 100– 8 8 4
LSU (27-13-1) 052 202 30x– 14 15 2
Chad Pendarvis, Brad Miller (2), Brent Rowell (4), Risley St. Germain (6), Brad Pitarro (8) and Lenny Mayard; Jason Determann, Chad Vaught (6), Greg Smith (7), Billy Sadler and Matt Liuzza.
WP–Determann, 3-0.
LP–Pendarvis, 3-1.
2B–SLU: Jeff Janzen (16); LSU: Ryan Patterson 2 (13), Jon Zeringue (10), Quinn Stewart (7), Aaron Hill (16), Clay Harris (12), Blake Gill (9).
HR–SLU: Russell Taylor (3).
T–3:00.
A–7,808 (paid); 2,602 (actual).