BATON ROUGE — Baylor broke a 1-1 tie by scoring three times in the top of the eighth inning against LSU ace pitcher Nate Bumstead as the Bears silenced an Alex Box Stadium crowd of 7,393 by taking a 4-1 victory in the opener of an NCAA super regional series on Friday night.
The best of three series continues at 11:35 a.m. Saturday morning, and should LSU win the second game, a third game will be played at 1:35 p.m. Sunday.
Baylor (45-21), which has not played a home game since May 11, needs just one win in the next two games to advance to its first College World Series since 1978.
LSU (43-20-1) finds itself in the same position it found itself in after the first game of last year’s super regional at Rice–win the last two games or fall short of the College World Series for the third consecutive year. The Tigers have now lost five consecutive super regional games, and are 3-7 since the format began in 1999.
Kyle Reynolds led off the Baylor eighth with a base hit to right, and then moved to second on Kevin Sevigny’s sacrifice bunt. Chad Durbin then gave the Bears the lead they would never relinquish when his base hit to left field brought home Reynolds.
The Bears weren’t finished, as Durbin easily stole second and then moved to third on an infield single by David Murphy. Josh Ford then singled home Durbin, and two batters later, Murphy scored on an RBI double by Mark Saccomano.
Baylor touched Bumstead (11-3) for four runs on nine hits in eight innings as the second team All-SEC selection lost for the first time when going seven or more innings in a starting assignment.
LSU got two runners on in the bottom of the eighth with the help of a pair of Baylor errors, but Jon Zeringue struck out looking to end the inning.
In the ninth, Matt Liuzza led off with a base hit, and then Baylor starter Steven White hit Bruce Sprowl in the leg to bring the tying run to the plate with no out.
Ryan LaMotta relieved White and froze J.C. Holt on a called third strike, then got Aaron Hill to foul out to third base and got Blake Gill to fly out to short center to end the game.
White, the Big 12 leader in strikeouts, struck out nine LSU batters, six on called third strikes, and scattered seven hits in eight-plus innings to improve to 9-4 on the year. LaMotta notched his third save of the year.
With both teams sending their ace pitchers to the mound for the opener, the expected slugfest between the top hitting teams in the Big 12 and Southeastern Conferences never developed, as White and Bumstead matched each other zero for zero through the first five innings.
LSU had the closest scoring opportunity in the first five innings, as Gill led off the second with a double and went to third on Clay Harris’ ground ball, but Gill was stranded when both Ivan Naccarata and Ryan Patterson hit pop-ups to end the inning.
Baylor finally broke the scoreless tie in the top of the sixth, as Durbin grounded a one-out single past the dive of LSU third baseman Naccarata, which was followed by a walk to Murphy, the Bears’ leading hitter. Ford came up next, and he grounded a ball between Naccarata and Aaron Hill into left field to score Durbin.
The Bears’ rally was cut short when Ford was called for interference on a Chris Griffin ground ball, giving the Tigers an inning-ending double play. Ford tried to take out second baseman Gill after Ford was forced, but second base umpire Perry Costello ruled Ford used a roll block, which is illegal in college baseball.
LSU shortstop Hill, the 2003 SEC Player of the Year, led off the bottom of the sixth with a ground ball base hit, and moved to second two batters later when White hit Clay Harris on the left shoulder. Harris was forced at second on Naccarata’s ground ball for the second out, but Ryan Patterson delivered the Tigers’ first two-out base hit of the night with a double down the right field line to score Hill and tie it at 1-1.
The run was the first for LSU in a super regional game since the fifth inning of the third game in 2001 vs. Tulane, as the Tigers had been shut out over their previous 28 innings, including 6-0 and 3-0 losses to Rice last year.
Baylor (45-21) 000 001 030– 4 10 2
LSU (43-20-1) 000 001 000– 1 7 0
Steven White, Ryan LaMotta (9) and Josh Ford; Nate Bumstead, Billy Sadler (9) and Matt Liuzza.
WP–White, 9-4.
LP–Bumstead, 11-3.
S–LaMotta (3).
2B–Baylor: Josh Ford (19), Mark Saccomano (15), Trey Webb (22); LSU: Blake Gill (13), Ryan Patterson (18).
T–2:51.
A–7,669 (paid); 7,393 (actual).
2003 NCAA SUPER REGIONAL TOURNAMENT
LSU VS. BAYLOR
ALEX BOX STADIUM
June 6, 2003
LSU HEAD COACH SMOKE LAVAL
“It was a good ballgame and they got the timely hits. Their guy (Steven White) went 140 pitches strong and he was still throwing pretty good late in the ballgame. Nate (Bumstead) threw a gem of a game. They bunched a couple of hits together and we had our chances. A base hit here or there would have kept the offensive pressure on. We had guys on and hit some balls hard but it just did not work out for us.”
STARTING PITCHER NATE BUMSTEAD
“If I would have known before the game that I would have gone past the seventh and given up only one run I would say we would have a pretty good chance of winning. But if you would have said that I would give up three runs in the eighth, then that is not real good but all in all I guess it was not too bad of an outing. Giving up runs late, though, is kinda tough and does not put your team in a very good spot to win.”
SHORTSTOP AARON HILL
“Well you have to tip your hat to him. I do not know if it was just that we came out a little lackadaisical but I do not know. I do not know if we maybe took them for granted, but they beat us. The key to winning a ballgame is getting those timely hits and they did and we didn’t.”
SECOND BASEMAN BLAKE GILL
“Well I started off real good and felt real comfortable at the plate even in the last two at-bats in which I did not get a hit. We had our chances to get hits and I had my chance in the last at-bat with a guy in scoring position but it just did not work out for me. Hopefully I can carry this feeling into tomorrow and have a good game.”
Baylor Quotes
Head Coach Steve Smith
“Win or lose, I thought it was a heck of a baseball ballgame. Obviously, both starting pitchers were on their game. They threw extremely well. Both of us had some opportunities and both of us stranded some runners early in the game. I just really thought we hung around long enough to where he (Nate Bumstead) got a little tired. We were able to get a couple balls to go through. All in all, it was a pretty well played baseball game on both sides. I was proud of our guys that we didn’t cave in after two errors. It is very easy to do that. I was proud of Steven (White) for keeping his composure and calling the guys to the mound to save me a trip and settling everybody down. He (White) had to expend a lot more energy in that inning to get two more outs, but that was a big-time performance by a senior pitcher.
Coach Smith on if this was one of Steven Smith’s best pitching performances…
“Yeah, I think that there’s been a game or two this season where he’s had better overall stuff in terms of every pitch, but on this stage tonight I thought that was as good of command of his fastball that he’s had. He challenged a lot of guys. He made some big pitches against very, very good hitters.”
“So you know, all in all, I’ve seen him adjust better, but not a whole lot better. His fastball, I thought was really good tonight.”
Centerfielder Chris Durbin
“He (Bumstead) was giving me a lot of fastballs to hit. Something he did not do for most of the game was give me off-speed pitches. I was kind of surprised by the amount of fastballs he gave me, it threw me off guard a little bit. I was up there(8th inning at bat) thinking I have to get this run in right here. I just tried to put the ball in play with two strikes and he gave me a change up low and away and I just stuck my bat out there and drove it to left field.”
Chris Durbin on winning the first game of the series here at LSU…
“I think that it’s really big. All the way through the entire night I was talking to a few guys on the team we were saying that these two teams are very well matched. I really didn’t know that much about LSU and I think it’s just a big, big win especially playing here.”
“It’s just an awesome atmosphere. I’ve never played in anything like it. Texas A&M and UT (Texas) kind of compare a little bit, but I don’t think that I’ve played in an atmosphere this intense in my entire career.”
Starting Pitcher Steven White
“I was just trying to keep everything under control out there on the mound. Obviously, if you let this crowd get in to it out here, it can change the game quick. In the 8th inning, I knew I had to calm the guys down (following two errors) because I knew I would have them behind me on the next play. I had great command of every thing tonight. I was able to locate the fastball and get ahead and I was also able to get ahead with my breaking ball and change-up whenever I needed to. You have to be able to do that in this park and especially against a team like LSU, because of the way they swing their bats.”
“Pretty much tonight, Coach (Smith) was calling it (the game) and whatever he called I threw it. I didn’t shake any pitches off tonight, really. I just located the pitch right there. I caught them off guard a few times with the breaking ball on a full count and it caught them off guard a little bit. I was just making pitches right there and I had to do it, because you can’t give them any free runners out here.”