BATON ROUGE — LSU jumped out to an 8-0 lead on Loyola of New Orleans and weathered a surprisingly strong charge by the NAIA school before pulling away to a 21-6 victory on Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium in the Fighting Tigers’ final non-conference game of the year.
The game was called in the bottom of the eighth inning following a leadoff home run by Will Harris by mutual agreement of the coaching staffs from both teams.
The Tigers finished the year 10-0 at home against in-state opponents and 12-3 overall vs. Louisiana foes.
LSU (33-16-1) now turns its attention to the Southeastern Conference championship race, with two crucial series against West division foes. First up is a three-game series this weekend at home with Auburn (34-14), the Bayou Bengals’ closest pursuer in the race. LSU is 16-7-1 in conference play, a game and a half ahead of Auburn at 15-9.
The series gets underway on Friday at 6:30 p.m., followed by games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. The Tigers close the regular season May 16-18 at Arkansas.
LSU (No. 8 Collegiate Baseball, No. 10 Baseball America, No. 16 ESPN/USA Today) jumped on the Wolfpack for five runs in the first inning and an 8-0 lead through three.
J.C. Holt and Aaron Hill became the game’s first baserunners in the first when they drew back-to-back walks, and Holt scored on a single by Blake Gill.
Gill then stole second, and Hill broke for home on the throw down to second. Hill scored easily when Brian Sullivan’s throw went past second base, and then Gill went to third when the throw home went to the backstop.
Two batters later, Ivan Naccarta launched a triple off the center field fence to score Clay Harris before coming home himself on a base hit by Ryan Patterson. Two batters later, reserve catcher Shawn French collected his first career extra base hit with a double down the left field line to score Patterson.
Hill added a two-run double in the second before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Gill, and a two-base error on an errant pickoff moved Jon Zeringue to third before he came home on a wild pitch in the third to make it 8-0.
LSU starting pitcher Jake Tompkins worked three perfect innings and struck out four to pick up the win and improve to 2-5 on the year.
Loyola (18-33) finally began to hit the ball, and hit it hard, off of LSU reliever Greg Smith when the freshman left-hander came into the game at the start of the fourth inning to replace Tompkins.
Greg Veltri led off with a hit into right-center field, and he was followed by back-to-back doubles by David Greiner and Ryan Moity that gave the Wolfpack a pair of quick runs. Smith then hit Scott Schenck, and after a sacrifice bunt by David Lauricella advanced the runners, Moity scored Loyola’s third run of the frame on a ground ball to the right side by Jeff Quates.
Smith’s woes continued in the fifth, as he retied the first two Loyola batters in the frame, but gave up a base hit to Veltri before yielding a two-run home run to Greiner
LSU restored some control of the game with a pair of runs in the fifth, then broke the game wide open by scoring five runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Holt collected a two-run double in both the sixth and seventh innings as he went 4-for-5 with three runs scored.
The 20-run outburst by the Tigers was their first since a 20-5 win over Auburn on May 11, 2001.
Loyola-N.O. (18-33) 000 321 00– 6 8 6
LSU (33-16-1) 521 025 51– 21 20 1
Game called in bottom of 8th inning by mutual agreement.
Alan Bouterie, Gian Balsamo (2), Brad Showalter (6), Tory Western (7), Scott Schenck (8) and Brian Sullivan; Jake Tompkins, Greg Smith (4), Jordan Faircloth (5), Jason Determann (8) and Shawn French, Matt Liuzza (7), Ty Jensen (8).
WP–Tompkins, 2-5.
LP–Bouterie, 4-2.
2B–Loyola: David Grenier (6), Ryan Moity 2 (16); LSU: Shawn French (1), Aaron Hill (23), J.C. Holt 2 (8), Ivan Naccarata (9).
3B–LSU: Naccarata (4).
HR–Loyola: Grenier (1); LSU: Will Harris (20.
T–2:43.
A–2,256 (paid); 2,192 (actual).