BATON ROUGE — LSU’s potent offense continued its tear through the Southeastern Conference by setting a season high for runs as the Fighting Tigers crushed Tennessee, 17-4, in the opening game of a three-game Southeastern Conference series on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The 17 runs bested the Tigers’ previous season high, which was achieved in their 15-0 win at Centenary back on February 11, and are the highest total for LSU since a 20-5 win over Auburn on May 11, 2001. The 18 hits were one shy of the season high, which was also done earlier this year at Centenary.
LSU (28-13-1, 13-5-1) finished the evening one and one half games ahead of both Mississippi State and Auburn in the SEC West Division and overall standings, as the Bulldogs’ game at Florida was rained out, while Auburn dropped a 7-4 decision at Vanderbilt.
The Tigers (No. 8 Collegiate Baseball, No. 13 Baseball America, No. 17 ESPN/USA Today), who have now won eight consecutive games over Tennessee in Baton Rouge, will look to extend that streak in Saturday’s 6 p.m. contest.
Saturday’s game will be televised as part of the Volunteers’ package on Comcast Sports Southeast, but will not be available in Louisiana.
Of the 13 LSU players who made a plate appearance in the game, 12 got at least one hit, with six players recording two hits each. Clay Harris led the way by driving in four runs, while Aaron Hill and Ivan Naccarata chipped in with three RBI each.
Tennessee (24-18, 8-11) allowed double figure runs for only the second time this year, the first time since a 10-4 loss to Miami (Fla.) on March 9. The Volunteers also allowed the most runs they have yielded to LSU in the series’ 44-game history.
Tennessee’s Jordan Czarniecki got the game off to a flying start for the Volunteers when he hit the second pitch of the game from Justin Meier over the right-center fence for his third home run of the year.
LSU answered immediately in the bottom of the first when Bruce Sprowl, a Knoxville native, hit his first career home run for the Tigers on the second pitch from Ben Riley to tie the game at 1-1.
Two batters after Sprowl’s home run, Hill bounced a double inside the third base bag into the left field corner, and then would score right away on Clay Harris’ base hit on a bouncer up the middle to put LSU in front, 2-1.
Riley quickly fell into trouble in the second when he yielded back-to-back singles to Quinn Stewart and Will Harris to start the inning, and then Matt Liuzza drew a walk to load the bases. Sprowl lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to score Stewart to extend the lead to 3-1, and then a Ryan Patterson single just past the dive of Tennessee third baseman Kyle Norrid to re-load the bases.
Hill just missed a grand slam, as he had to settle for a sacrifice fly when Chad LeGate hauled in his fly ball at the wall. Riley wasn’t as fortunate on the next batter, as Clay Harris launched an 0-1 offering deep over the left field bleachers for a three-run home run, Harris’ team leading 10th on the year, extending the Tiger lead to 7-1.
The early runs were welcome relief for LSU starting pitcher Meier, who broke a two-game losing streak and improved to 5-2 by going 7 2/3 innings and giving up four runs on nine hits. In his previous two starts, Meier lost to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt when the Tigers scored two runs in each game.
Riley, who allowed just one run in 8 1/3 innings last year in defeating LSU 2-1 at Knoxville, gave up seven earned runs on seven hits in just 2 2/3 innings to fall to 3-4 on the year.
A leadoff walk to Javi Herrera in the fourth and a double by Nick Crowe led to a pair of Tennessee runs in the fourth, first on a ground ball by Walter Sevillia to Clay Harris at first base, and then on Norrid’s sacrifice fly.
Liuzza’s RBI single scored Stewart with LSU’s first run in a four-run fifth, followed by an RBI double from Patterson and Hill’s two-run single.
LSU tacked on three more runs in the sixth, with the help of two Tennessee errors, the first by Sevilla on Blake Gill’s ground ball, and then another by shortstop Michael Rivera on a relay throw on a J.C. Holt single that scored Jon Zeringue.
The game was delayed briefly in the fifth inning when a pitch in the dirt by Tennessee reliever Joey Andrews bounced up and hit home plate umpire Scott Erby in the groin area. Erby was momentarily dazed but remained in the game.
Tennessee (24-18, 8-11) 100 200 010– 4 10 3
LSU (28-13-1, 13-5-1) 250 043 30x– 17 18 1
Ben Riley, Joey Andrews (3), Patrick Green (7), Jack Branston (8) and Javi Herrera, Jeremy Cabbage (7); Justin Meier, Jordan Faircloth (8) and Matt Liuzza, Shawn French (8).
WP–Meier, 5-2.
LP–Riley, 3-4.
2B–Tennessee: Nick Crowe (7); LSU: Aaron Hill (17), Ryan Patterson (14), Ivan Naccarata (7).
HR–Tennessee: Jordan Czarniecki (3); LSU: Bruce Sprowl (1), Clay Harris (10).
T–2:51.
A–8,042 (paid); 4,971 (actual).