BATON ROUGE — For the second time in as many days, fifth-ranked LSU survived a late scare to outlast its opponent, holding on for a 10-8 victory over Western Illinois in a wild contest Saturday evening at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (13-4) had led by as many as five runs but rallies by the Leathernecks (4-12) in the fifth, sixth and ninth kept WIU within striking distance.
“You can never have too many runs,” said head coach Smoke Laval. “I told the guys you can’t get complacent out there when you have a lead. When you say that enough times, maybe it will sink in, but you do that a lot for the freshmen.”
WIU will face Arizona State at noon on Sunday, before LSU plays its final game of the weekend at 4 p.m. against the Sun Devils.
Second baseman Clay Harris finished the day a home run shy of the cycle, going 4-for-4 with four runs scored and one RBI. Harris had one of two RBI in the eighth, which proved to be the game-winning runs.
“I’d be lying if I said hitting for the cycle wasn’t in the back of my mind in the eighth,” said Harris. “But, I went up there just like I did all of the other at-bats, trying to find a good pitch I could drive. Mainly, I was just trying to concentrate and get the run in from second.”
Centerfielder Ryan Patterson added three hits, including a pair of homers, four runs scored and three RBI. It was the senior’s second multi-homer game of his career and first since May 23, 2004 at Ole Miss.
Trailing 2-1 in the third, LSU produced a four-run third highlighted by Matt Liuzza’s RBI double and Quinn Stewart’s two-run single to left.
Patterson stepped up to the plate to leadoff the fourth and drilled his second homer of the day over the left field bleachers. Dustin Weaver added a sacrifice fly, and LSU held a commanding 7-2 lead after four innings of play.
WIU then responded, scoring five unanswered runs off three Tiger pitchers over the next two frames to knot the score at 7-7.
Starter Chris Cahill surrendered three of the runs in the fifth on Tyler Johnson’s bases clearing double, before yielding to Chase Dardar. Cahill left after allowing five runs (four earned) on nine hits in his first career start.
Dardar allowed back-to-back hits to start the sixth, which led to Dan Davy’s RBI groundout. With two outs in the inning, the right-handed reliever then uncorked a wild pitch to the backstop, bringing in the tying run.
LSU plated a run in the sixth when Clay Harris took advantage of a wild pitch opportunity, scampering in on pitcher Corey Ferger’s offering.
Harris’ impressive day continued in the eighth as the senior delivered one of two clutch RBI singles to give the Tigers a three-run cushion at 10-7.
Edgar Ramirez, LSU’s third pitcher of the day, gave up a leadoff single to Joe Pacyga to start theninth. Jordan Faircloth then entered the game and allowed a double to Johnson — his second of the day — putting two runners in scoring position.
Two batters later, Jake Gloude’s RBI single allowed the tying run to reach first. Clinging to a 10-8 lead, Faircloth caught pinch runner Steve Knapp off-guard on the bag, picking him off to record the second out of the inning. A groundout by T.J. Kistner gave Faircloth his third save of the season.
Dardar (1-0) earned his first career win in his one-inning outing, while Ferger (0-2) registered the loss in 3.1 frames of work.
LSU 10, Western Illinois 8 (Mar 12, 2005 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Western Illinois…. 020 032 001 – 8 16 0 (4-12)
LSU………………. 104 201 02X – 10 11 2 (13-4)
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Pitchers: Western Illinois – Buchen; Ferger(4); Matlick(7). LSU – Cahill; Dardar(6); Ramirez(7); Faircloth(9).
Win-Dardar(1-0) Save-Faircloth(3) Loss-Ferger(0-2) T-3:02 A-7265
HR LSU – Patterson 2 (4).
Actual Attendance: 3,356
Buchen faced 1 batter in the 4th.
Dardar faced 1 batter in the 7th.
Ramirez faced 1 batter in the 9th.