BATON ROUGE — Right fielder Quinn Stewart drove in shortstop Michael Hollander with a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday night as No. 25 LSU overcame a 3-0 deficit to capture a 4-3 victory over Vanderbilt at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (33-17, 12-13 SEC) moved into a seventh-place tie with the Commodores (28-22, 12-13) in the overall SEC race and won their fifth straight contest. Mississippi State dropped into ninth place after suffering an 18-5 loss at Kentucky on Friday. The top eight teams qualify for the SEC Tournament, which takes place May 24-28 in Hoover, Ala.
Game 2 of the LSU-Vanderbilt series gets underway at 2 p.m. Saturday. Freshman right-hander Louis Coleman (5-3, 4.33) will go against talented sophomore southpaw David Price (6-4, 4.01), a projected Top 5 pick in the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft.
Live streaming video and audio of Saturday’s contests are available in the Geaux Zone powered by USAgencies on www.LSUsports.net.
Stewart’s single capped a furious comeback for the Tigers, who claimed their 19th come-from-behind win of the season. Hollander worked a 3-2 walk against Vanderbilt reliever Stephen Shao to start the ninth. Second baseman J.T. Wise then moved him down to second with a bloop single to center, before allowing Stewart to snap an 0-for-11 slump with a single to left field.
LSU reliever Will Harris (1-1) picked up his first career victory with a perfect ninth inning.
Shao (2-3) took the loss in a third of an inning of work after a solid outing from starter Matt Buschmann, who stymied LSU for seven innings, allowing two runs on just five hits.
Buschmann was staked to an early 3-0 lead when Vanderbilt scored one run against Tiger starter Clay Dirks in each of the first three frames.
However, Dirks kept LSU within striking distance and worked seven strong innings, scattering 11 hits and three runs (two earned) in a 124-pitch outing.
First baseman Jordan Mayer brought in the Tigers’ first run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Then in the eighth, LSU knotted the game at three apiece courtesy of a bizarre base-running play and a clutch RBI single from Harris.
The Tigers had runners at second and third with one out and centerfielder Jarred Bogany at the plate. Bogany grounded out to first baseman Ryan Flaherty, who attempted to throw out pinch runner Chris McGhee in a run down between second and third.
Catcher Matt Liuzza then beat out a throw home from third baseman Pedro Alvarez as the bizarre sequence pulled LSU to within a run at 3-2. Harris then drove in the tying run with a single off of Nick Christiani.
Harris, who started the game at third base, made his way to the mound in the top of the ninth and gave the Tiger offense a chance toward a walk-off win with another brilliant 1-2-3 inning.
“What you see says enough,” said LSU coach Smoke Laval about Harris. “Usually when he gets that big base hit or scores the winning run, he goes out there with a lot of confidence. He trusts his stuff.”
LSU 4, Vanderbilt 3 (May 12, 2006 at Baton Rouge, La.)
———————————————————————-
Vanderbilt………. 111 000 000 – 3 11 3 (28-22, 12-13 SEC)
LSU……………… 000 001 021 – 4 8 1 (33-17, 12-13 SEC)
———————————————————————-
Pitchers: Vanderbilt – Buschmann; Crowell(8); Christiani(8); Shao, S.(8). LSU – Dirks; Shaffer(8); Harris, W.(9).
Win-Harris, W.(1-1) Loss-Shao, S.(2-3) T-3:06 A-7427
HR VU – Robin (5).
Actual Attendance: 3,566
Dirks faced 1 batter in the 8th.
Buschmann faced 1 batter in the 8th.
Crowell faced 1 batter in the 8th.
Shao, S. faced 3 batters in the 9th.