BATON ROUGE — Auburn jumped on LSU for seven runs in the top of the first inning off of Nate Bumstead and never looked back in cruising to 14-8 victory in the finale of a three-game Southeastern Conference series on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (35-17-1, 18-8-1) came into Sunday’s game with an outside chance to wrap up the SEC championship.
LSU’s magic number to clinch the championship is two, as it can clinch the championship by taking two of three games next weekend at Arkansas.
The LSU-Arkansas series gets underway on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Fayetteville and continues with games at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
Bumstead, who came into the game 7-0 with a 2.80 ERA in SEC games, uncharacteristically got into trouble early and often and was removed after giving up seven earned runs on five hits in facing 10 batters.
Bumstead gave up a single to leadoff hitter Sean Gamble, and although Gamble was retied on a fielder’s choice ground ball by Javon Moran, a single by Tug Hulett and a walk to Bobby Huddleston loaded the bases, and Auburn scored the game’s first run when Karl Amonite was hit on the leg by a bouncing Bumstead pitch.
Bumstead then gave up another bases loaded walk, this one to Josh Bell, to force in another run, and then yielded an RBI single to Clete Thomas.
Two batters later, Chuck Jeroloman bounced a two-run single up the middle, and Gamble followed with a his second hit of the inning, a triple into the right-center field gap to chase Bumstead.
The seven-run uprising tied for the biggest inning given up by LSU this season, along with a seven-run third inning vs. Kansas on Febraury 16.
Auburn continued to put the pressure the Tigers, trading single runs with LSU in the second inning after LSU got on the board in the bottom of the first, and then tallying twice in the third and again in the fourth on a two-run home run by Jeroloman to knock Tiger reliever Jake Tompkins out of the game.
Tompkins, the Tigers’ second reliever of the day, gave up five runs on five hits in 2 2/3 innings.
Jeroloman, who came into the game hitting .231 on the year, went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBI, while Gamble was 3-for-6 and Huddleston 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.
Auburn starter Levale Speigner improved to 8-0 on the year by giving up just one earned run in five innings.
LSU had a baserunner on in every inning but ended up stranding 13 for the game and never coming closer than six runs after Auburn’s initial onslaught.
Auburn (35-16, 16-11) 712 200 101– 14 16 6
LSU (35-17-1, 18-8-1) 112 001 012– 8 13 0
Levale Speigner, Cory Dueitt (6), Steven Register (8) and Josh Bell; Nate Bumstead, Jake Tompkins (1), Jason Determann (4) and Matt Liuzza.
WP–Speigner, 8-0.
LP–Bumstead, 8-2.
2B–Auburn: Javon Moran 2 (17), Bobby Huddleston 2 (16).
3B–Auburn: Sean Gamble (3), Chuck Jeroloman (1); LSU: Bruce Sprowl (3).
HR–Auburn: Jeroloman (3), Tug Hulett (2).
T–3:04.
A–7,696 (paid); 4,139 (actual).