BATON ROUGE — After 23 hours, Game 5 of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional ended. The top-seeded LSU baseball team scored six runs in the seventh and four in the eighth — with 18 hours between — to eliminated No. 3 seed Northwestern State, 12-4, on Monday morning at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (40-21) advanced to face No. 2 seed Rice (43-17) with the first pitch scheduled for 12:40 p.m. on Monday. The Tigers must defeat the Owls twice to advance to the NCAA Super Regional next weekend.
LSU starter Lane Mestepey (7-8) started and picked up with victory after throwing six innings and enduring a 64-minute rain and lightning delay on Sunday. The lefthander allowed four runs on 10 hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Edgar Ramirez pitched the final three innings and earned his first save of the season.
Demons reliever Shawn Johnston (2-2) was charged with his second loss of the tournament after giving up four runs on one hit in only 1/3 of an inning.
Northwestern State’s season ended with a record of 41-20.
After trailing 3-2 in the sixth inning, the Tigers chased Northwestern State starter Kyle Broughton from the game with a six-run bottom of the sixth to take control of the game before the second rain delay ended play for Sunday.
LSU scored four more runs in the bottom of the seventh on Monday morning to put the Demons away.
Northwestern State put pressure on the LSU starters to open the contest, as Rusty Jones and Marty Dewees each lined singled to the outfield to put two on with no outs. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position, Mestepey coaxed Blake Jones into a slow ground ball back to the mound for the second out and Bob Barbier into a fly out to center.
In the top of the second, Mestepey fell victim to a two-out, two-base fielding error by Tigers third baseman Chris Jackson that allowed Casey DeRosa to score from second base. Northwestern State led 1-0, as LSU fell behind for the fifth-straight game in postseason play.
Broughton struggled with control early on, walking four of the first eight batters he faced but getting out of the first inning with a double play and getting the first two outs in the second with another. However, his fourth walk of the game came around to score when DeRosa’s throw back to the infield on a single to right field by Bruce Sprowl went uncaught and allowed Dustin Weaver to score all the way from first base. The game was tied at 1-1 on the unearned run.
Of Broughton’s first 45 pitches, only 19 were for strikes.
As the fourth inning was about to begin, lightning crashed miles north of Alex Box Stadium, delaying the game at 2:01 p.m. After about 15 minutes of rain, the tarp was removed and play resumed at 3:05 p.m.
Mestepey, who threw 42 pitches before the delay, retired the side in order including two strikeouts in the top of the fourth.
LSU took the lead in the bottom of the inning, 2-1, when Northwestern committed two errors, a dropped fly ball and a misplayed ground ball by Morgan that allowed Weaver to score from second base.
Looking to take the lead back in the top of the fifth, Northwestern State loaded the bases with no outs. However, Mestepey took advantage of a fielder’s choice double play started by Jackson at third base that cut down Hunter Thoms at the plate. Then, Jackson scooped a hard ground by Dewees and stepped on third for the final out.
Broughton found trouble again in the bottom of the fifth, allowing bases on balls to Ryan Patterson and Clay Harris with only one out. This time, Jordan Mayer grounded into LSU’s third double of the game to end the inning.
The Demons were able to take the lead back in the top of the six when DeRosa hit a one-out two-run home run over the left field bleachers to put NSU ahead, 3-2.
A leadoff walk to Derek Hebert forced the Demons to make a pitching change and bring in Shawn Johnston. After a sacrifice bunt by Weaver, Sprowl singled to left to tie the game at 3-3 and advanced to third on two consecutive throwing errors on the play.
Chris Jackson then reached base when Morgan fielded a ground ball at second, checked Sprowl back to third and then threw the ball to first in the dirt. With runners on the corners, Blake Gill walked to load the bases and Patterson was hit by a 1-1 pitch to score Jackson and give LSU a 4-3 lead.
Johnston was pulled in favor of Daniel Desclouds after getting only one out, but Descoulds would do no better.
The righthander gave up a two-RBI single to Stavinoha followed by an RBI double by Clay Harris, on which Stavinoha was thrown out at the plate on the relay throw. Mayer then doubled down the left field line to score Harris and give LSU an 8-3 lead.
A base-running mistake by Hebert after a single to left ended the six-run inning.
In the top of the seventh, the Demons chased Mestepey by putting runners on first and second on consecutive singles. LSU reliever Edgar Ramirez got the first out of the inning on a fly ball that advanced Rusty Jones to third. A wild pitch allowed Jones to score and Dewees to advance to second. Dewees then moved to third on the second fly ball out of the inning before Blake Jones was hit by a pitch. Ramirez struck out DeRosa looking for the third out.
Ty Hanson entered in relief of Desclouds to start the bottom of the seventh and recorded one out before hitting Sprowl by a pitch and giving up a single to Jackson.
Then, the lightning and rain came again at 4:40 p.m. and began a deluge that halted the game for two hours until officials announced that it would be postponed until Monday.
When the game was resumed at 11 a.m. on Monday, LSU picked up where it left off on Sunday. Hanson hit his second batter of the inning — more than 18 hours later — to load the bases for Patterson, whose two-run single to center field scored Sprowl and Jackson.
After hitting Stavinoha with a pitch, Hanson was lifted and Cory Keener entered in relief. The lefthander gave up a two-run double to left field by Clay Harris to give LSU a 12-4 lead.