BATON ROUGE — LSU left little doubt as to whether or not it would complete its three-game sweep of Tennessee, as the Fighting Tigers used an 11-run fourth inning, their biggest uprising of the year, to roll over the Volunteers, 15-4, to remain in first place in the Southeastern Conference on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (30-13-1, 15-5-1) will now enter a crucial May stretch run which will feature series with Mississippi State, Auburn and Arkansas, three of the Tigers’ closest pursuers in the SEC championship race, including a trip to Starkville next weekend to face coach Ron Polk’s Bulldogs.
But before the Tigers continue their drive for their 13th SEC championship and first since 1997, LSU will first turn its attention to its third meeting this season with archrival Tulane, which takes place on Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. in the Louisiana Superdome. The Tigers and the Green Wave have split their first two meetings this year, with Tulane winning 5-4 at Zephyr Field in 11 innings on March 11, with LSU winning 8-0 at Alex Box Stadium on April 15.
After giving up runs to Tennessee (24-20, 8-13) in the first inning of the previous two games, LSU (No. 8 Collegiate Baseball, No. 13 Baseball America, No. 17 ESPN/USA Today) jumped out in front early with a pair of runs in the first on a two-run single by Blake Gill that scored Bruce Sprowl and J.C. Holt, who led off the inning with consecutive base hits.
The Tigers’ onslaught in the fourth began with the first five LSU batters reaching safely. Ivan Naccarata and Ryan Patterson led off with back-to-back doubles, with Naccarata scoring on Patterson’s hit for a 3-0 lead.
Patterson moved to third on a ground ball single by Jon Zeringue, and then scored on another ground ball single, this one by Matt Liuzza, extending the pad to 4-0.
With runners on first and second, Bruce Sprowl laid down a perfect drag bunt, sprinting to an uncovered first base to load the bases for J.C. Holt, whose fielder’s choice ground ball retired Holt for the first out but scored Zeringue from third.
Aaron Hill flied to center for the second out, and then Blake Gill hit a ground ball to shortstop Brian Cleveland that would apparently retire the side, but Cleveland couldn’t get a handle on the ball, allowing Liuzza to score and leaving runners Holt and Gill safe on the error.
As was the case with a fifth inning error on Saturday that led to four unearned runs, this miscue opened the floodgates for the Tigers.
Clay Harris greeted Tennessee reliever Luke Hochevar with an RBI single, and after walking Naccarata, Hochevar gave up the second hit of the inning to Patterson, a three-run home run deep into the left field bleachers to give LSU a 11-0 cushion.
Hochevar’s troubles weren’t over, as he yielded another single to Zeringue, an RBI double to Liuzza and a run-scoring base hit to Sprowl before finally ending the inning by retiring Holt on a ground ball.
Patterson finished his day 3-for-4 with 4 RBI, while Zeringue was 4-for-4 with three runs scored to spearhead the Tigers’ 19-hit attack, tying a season high for hits also achieved at Centenary on February 11.
In all, LSU sent 15 batters to the plate in the fourth inning, banging out 10 hits and scoring the most runs in one inning since a 14-run third inning on May 27, 2000 against Louisiana-Monroe in an NCAA regional game. The coach on the wrong end of the 2000 outburst was Smoke Laval, who was then ULM’s coach before following Skip Bertman at LSU in 2002.
The run support was typical of the Tigers’ explosive nature in conference games on Sundays. LSU is now 6-0-1 this year in SEC Sunday games and scoring 71 runs, including 10 or more in four of the last five contests.
Once again, Nate Bumstead was the beneficiary of such an uprising. The Las Vegas native won his sixth straight SEC start to improve to 7-1, striking out seven and allowing no earned runs through seven innings.
The Volunteers finally got on the board in the seventh with the help of a pair of LSU errors, as Jeremy Cabbage scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh Alley, and then an RBI double by Nick Crowe scored New Orleans native Rob Fitzgerald.
Tennessee starter Brandon Crowe fell to 3-1 by giving up eight runs (five earned) on 10 hits and eight runs (five earned) in 3 2/3 innings.
Tennessee (24-20, 8-13) 000 000 202– 4 9 3
LSU (30-13-1, 15-5-1) 200 (11)02 00x- 15 19 2
Brandon Crowe, Luke Hochevar (4), Patrick Greene (7) and Javi Herrera; Nate Bumstead, Chad Vaught (8) and Matt Liuzza.
WP–Bumstead, 7-1.
LP–B. Crowe, 3-1.
2B–Tennessee: Nick Crowe (8), Jeremy Chappell (1); LSU: Ivan Naccarata (8), Ryan Patterson (15), Matt Liuzza (4), Aaron Hill (18).
HR–LSU: Patterson (9).
T–2:36.
A–7,687 (paid); 4,285 (actual).