STARKVILLE, Miss. — Matthew Brinson’s two-run double in the bottom of the seventh gave Mississippi State the lead for good as the Bulldogs rallied to defeat Southeastern Conference leader LSU, 4-2, on Friday night at Dudy Noble Field in the opener of a three-game weekend series.
LSU (31-15-1, 15-6-1) maintains a two-game lead in the SEC over both Mississippi St. (32-12-1, 13-8) and Auburn (32-13, 13-8), which had its game on Friday at home with Florida rained out.
The series resumes on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a contest that will be televised by SEC-TV on Fox Sports Net South and Southwest.
State trailed 2-1 entering the seventh inning when Matthew Maniscalco led off with a base hit. Tiger reliever Greg Smith struck out Jeff Butts, but then gave up a base hit to Steve Gendron to move runners to the corners to bring up Brinson, who in the opener of last year’s seris in Baton Rouge, went 4-for-6 with six RBI against the Tigers.
Brinson wasted little time in giving State (No. 16 Baseball America, No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 Collegiate Baseball) a 3-2 lead when he ripped a two-base hit into the right field corner. State added an extra run one batter later when Brad Corley grounded a single through the right side to score Brinson.
LSU (No. 6 Collegiate Baseball, No. 10 Baseball America, No. 12 ESPN/USA Today) got runners on second and third in the bottom of the eighth, but State relief ace Jonathan Papelbon froze pinch hitter Ivan Naccarata with a called third strike to end the threat.
MSU starter Paul Maholm struck out a season high 10 batters to improve to 7-2 on the year, scattering 10 hits and allowing just one earned run. Papelbon notched his seventh save by retiring the final four batters in order.
Maholm struck out Clay Harris and Blake Gill to start the second, but he gave up back-to-back walks to Jon Zeringue and Quinn Stewart, and with Will Harris at the plate, Zeringue took off for third. The throw from catcher Craig Tatum was in time to get Zeringue, but when third baseman Gendron applied the tag, the ball popped loose, and third base umpire Richie Tallent immediately changed his call from out to safe.
The error proved costly for State, as Will Harris lined the next pitch from Maholm into right-center field to score Zeringue with the game’s first run.
The LSU lead didn’t hold, as Bulldog first baseman Matthew Brinson led off the bottom of the second with a rocket home run over the right field fence. Brinson picked up where he left off in 2002, when he went 6-for-8 with six RBI in a two-game series in Baton Rouge.
LSU, which had runners on second and third with one out in the third but got nothing when Clay Harris and Gill struck out in succession to end the inning, took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Stewart’s RBI single, which scored Zeringue, who had led off the fourth with a double just inside the third base bag.
Robby Goodson’s leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth had the Bulldogs poised to at least tie the game, but after Goodson went to third on Tatum’s long fly ball, LSU starter Justin Meier kept LSU ahead 2-1 when he fanned Jon Mungle and got Thomas Berkery to line out to short.
Meier walked five in five-plus innings, while Smith took the loss in his first career LSU decision, striking out five but giving up three runs on five hits.
LSU (31-15-1, 15-6-1) 010 100 000– 2 9 0
MSU (32-12-1, 13-8) 010 000 30x– 4 10 1
Justin Meier, Greg Smith (6) and Matt Liuzza; Paul Maholm, Jonathan Papelbon (8) and Craig Tatum.
WP–Maholm, 7-2.
LP–Smith, 0-1.
S–Papelbon (7).
2B–LSU: Aaron Hill (20), Jon Zeringue (11); MSU: Robby Goodson (4), Matthew Brinson (14).
HR–MSU: Brinson (8).
T–2:46.
A–6,985 (paid); 5,472 (actual).