BATON ROUGE — Senior Lane Mestepey notched his second win of the season, while a pair of unearned runs proved to be the difference as second-ranked LSU held on for a 4-2 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock in a pitcher’s duel at Alex Box Stadium on Friday night.
LSU (5-0) will send sophomore left-hander Clay Dirks (1-0, 1.50) to the mound in Game 2 on Saturday at 4 p.m. UALR (4-4) will counter with junior southpaw Nick Enlow (0-2, 6.17).
Mestepey (2-0) worked 6.2 innings allowing one run on four hits and striking out five. The southpaw walked one, surrendering his first free pass of the season in 13.2 innings pitched.
Equally brilliant was Trojan starter Bennett Cromer (1-1) who went the distance in his second outing of the season. Cromer allowed four runs (two earned), walked three and struck out six in eight innings. The projected Major League prospect fired 121 pitches, including 76 for strikes.
Left fielder Ryan Patterson broke out of an early season slump, posting a 2-for-3 night to propel his average to .333 on the season. Designated hitter Blake Gill and first baseman Will Harris added a pair of hits to LSU’s final tally of eight.
For the third time this season, the Tigers used an impressive first inning to jump out to a quick 3-0 lead. Bruce Sprowl drew a leadoff walk and came into score the game’s first run on Gill’s RBI groundout. Patterson lined a double down the left field line and later touched home after Cromer dropped a throw from third baseman Steve Bilokur in a run-down opportunity.
“I tried to stay in it (the run down) as long as I could,” said Patterson. “I saw a break, he dropped it and I scored just like a normal play in the books.”
Will Harris, who continues to be the Tigers’ hottest hitter through the first five games, closed out the three-run first with an RBI single.
After allowing three hits in the first, Cromer settled down and set into grove. He did not allow a hit over the next 4.2 innings, until Gill lined a one-out single into left to extend his hitting streak to 19 games.
Mestepey cruised into the sixth inning when UALR managed their first threat of the game. Back-to-back singles by designated hitter Ben McMurry and shortstop Derek Eilers started the side. The Trojans first run crossed the plate three batters later on Bilokur’s sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 3-1.
After recording the first two outs of the seventh, Edgar Ramirez came on in his second relief appearance of the season. Ramirez, a transfer from Florida International, closed out the seventh but issued a run in the eighth courtesy of Chad McKellar’s sac-fly.
Ramirez set down the first two batters of the ninth, but the righty fell into trouble again and committed a throwing error to allow Mitchell Webb to reach second after an infield single. Josh Ward’s walk brought the go-ahead run to the plate.
Closer Jordan Faircloth came on and forced the final out on pinch-hitter Matt Garlington’s grounder to capture his second save of the season.
LSU 4, Arkansas-Little Rock 2 (Feb 18, 2005 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Arkansas-Little Rock 000 001 010 – 2 8 1 (4-4)
LSU…………………… 300 000 10X – 4 8 1 (5-0)
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Pitchers: Arkansas-Little Rock – Cromer, B. LSU – Mestepey; Ramirez(7); Faircloth(9).
Win-Mestepey(2-0) Save-Faircloth(2) Loss-Cromer, B(1-1)
T-2:13 A-7646
Actual attendance: 3,757