BATON ROUGE — LSU’s second-ranked baseball team is off to its best start since 1997, winning its seventh straight contest in a 15-9 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (7-0) will face its first road test of the season in a three-game set next weekend at Houston.
In 1997, the Tigers began the year 19-0 before dropping their first game at Georgia. LSU finished that season amassing a school record 57 wins en route to their fourth national championship.
With the loss, UALR dropped to 4-6 on the year. The Trojans hosts Jackson State in a doubleheader next Saturday.
Senior outfielder Nick Stavinoha led all hitters at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a homer, a double and a career-high five RBI.
Designated hitter Blake Gill extended his hitting streak to 20 games, the longest hitting stretch since Smoke Laval took over the program in 2002.
Junior southpaw Greg Smith (2-0) had an efficient outing, limiting UALR to two earned runs on five hits in five innings of work. Smith hurled 90 pitches in his second career start and struck out six.
Sophomore righty Trevor Clay (1-1) suffered his first loss of the season as he was tagged for eight runs (all earned) on six hits in 1.1 innings.
In what has become a common theme for the Tigers this season, LSU exploded for six runs on six hits in the first. Gill started the scoring on his RBI groundout, bringing in Bruce Sprowl who singled on the game’s first pitch.
Clay Harris, Stavinoha and Dustin Weaver all added run-scoring doubles that were smashed into left field. Stavinoha’s double plated two runs and was his fourth hit of the weekend.
After issuing two walks to start the second Clay was lifted after just 1.1 innings of work. He gave way to right hander Bryan Bearden, who was also greeted by a six-run power display. Will Harris, LSU’s leading hitter entering Sunday’s game, ripped an RBI single to left that scored his brother Clay.
Stavinoha followed and crushed Bearden’s 1-0 offering over the left field bleachers for a three-run homer, his first of the season. Two batters later, Derek Hebert got into the mix, smashing a line-drive two-run shot off of “The Intimidator” billboard in right field.
When the first and second innings barrages were over, LSU had pounded out 12 runs on 11 hits, including three homers and four doubles to take a commanding 12-0 lead. Head coach Smoke Laval lifted several Tigers starters in an effort to let some of the younger players gain experience.
A steady rain began to fall in the top of third, making conditions difficult in the field. The Trojans plated two unearned runs on a pair of singles from Derek Eilers and Jimmy Scott.
Tim Lawrence’s two-run homer in the fifth cut into the lead, but LSU countered with a run on a pinch-hit double from Quinn Stewart in the bottom of the fifth, making it a 13-4 contest.
With the Tigers cruising into the eighth inning, the Trojans made things interesting, scoring five runs and bringing the tying run to the plate with the bases loaded.
Relievers Chris Cahill and Eric English combined to walk six batters and hit a batter, while critical errors by second baseman Chris Jackson and shortstop Derek Hebert almost became LSU’s undoing.
English inherited a bases loaded jam and needed just one out to end the frame. After walking in Scott from third, the freshman forced a groundout to leave the runners stranded.
“I could have used (Jason) Determann or (Jordan) Faircloth, but I know what they can do,” said Laval. “I had to see if Cahill and English could finish the deal and overcome the errors.”
English pitched a perfect ninth and collected his first save.
LSU 15, Arkansas-Little Rock 9 (Feb 20, 2005 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Arkansas-Little Rock 002 020 050 – 9 9 0 (4-6)
LSU…………………… 660 010 02X – 15 16 4 (7-0)
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Pitchers: Arkansas-Little Rock – Clay, T; Bearden, B(2); Brickell, B(4); Fry, C(7). LSU – Smith; Cahill(6); English(8).
Win-Smith(2-0) Save-English(1) Loss-Clay, T(1-1) T-3:21 A-7475
HR UALR – Lawrence, T (2).
HR LSU – Stavinoha (2); Hebert (1).
Actual attendance: 3,234