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Baseball Settles for 12-Inning Tie with Bulldogs, 10-10

by LSUsports.net (@LSUsports)
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Baseball Settles for 12-Inning Tie with Bulldogs, 10-10

BATON ROUGE — LSU and seventh-ranked Georgia played to a 10-10 tie Sunday afternoon in Alex Box Stadium when the game was called after 12 innings due to Southeastern Conference travel regulations.
 
LSU returns to action Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT as the Tigers travel to New Orleans to face the Tulane Green Wave.
 
LSU (23-16-1, 6-11-1 SEC) held a seven-run advantage after six innings, but Georgia (27-12-1, 14-3-1 SEC) rallied to score four runs in the seventh, one in the eighth and two in the ninth to tie the contest.
 
“You score 10 runs, and you think you’re going to win a ball game,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “But, we have a couple of tough breaks go against us again, and we don’t score in the last six innings.
 
“It’s hard to understand how that happens.”
 
LSU starter Jared Bradford struck out eight Bulldog and allowed six earned runs in 6.1 innings pitched. Right-hander Paul Bertuccini and lefty Ryan Verdugo hurled 3.1 solid innings to preserve the tie.
 
Catcher Micah Gibbs and outfielders Derek Helenihi and Leon Landry each collected three hits for the Tigers. Left fielder Blake Dean finished 2 -for- 6 with three RBI and launched his eighth home run of the season.
 
Third baseman Michael Hollander blasted his third dinger on the year and made some sensational plays defensively.
 
Landry gave the Tigers an early 2-0 advantage in the bottom of the second inning. The true freshman smashed a triple into the gap in left center field to drive in two runs. The three-bagger was Landry’s SEC-leading fifth of the year.
 
LSU connected on a pair of home runs in the third to extend its lead to 5-0. Hollander led off with a solo homer to left field. Gibbs followed two batters later with a double off the wall in left field, and Dean drove him in with a towering, two-run shot to right center field.
 
Georgia got a run back in the fifth inning. Right fielder Matt Olson beat out an infield single to score center fielder Matt Cerione from third and cut the deficit to 5-1
 
Following a pair of runs from LSU in the fifth, Georgia struck for two runs in the sixth to reduce the deficit to 7-3.
 
The Tigers answered in the bottom of the sixth with three more runs. Helenihi ripped a base-hit into right field to plate two runs and advanced to second on the fielder’s choice. Gibbs singled to drive in Helenihi.
 
Georgia continued to peck away at the Tigers’ lead, scoring four runs in the seventh to cut the lead to 10-7.
 
The Bulldogs would tie the game up at 10-10 with a couple of dingers in the eighth and ninth innings. Olson hammered a solo shot to left field in the eighth to cut LSU’s lead to 10-8, and Robbie O’Bryan hit a two-run homer over the right field wall in the ninth to knot the contest at 10-10.
 
LSU’s duo of Bertuccini and Verdugo allowed only one hit in extra innings to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard the rest of the way.
 
“I just hurt for the kids,” Mainieri said. “After a tough loss yesterday, they came back again with great resiliency, played hard and gave everything that they had. They wanted to win so badly.”
 
 
Georgia 10, LSU 10 (Apr 20, 2008 at Baton Rouge, La.)
———————————————————————-
Georgia…………. 000 012 412 000 – 10 13 0 (27-12-1, 14-3-1 SEC)
LSU………………. 023 023 000 000 – 10 16 3 (23-16-1, 6-11-1 SEC)
———————————————————————-
Pitchers: Georgia – Nathan Moreau; Nick Montgomery(3); Steve Esmonde(5); Justin Grimm(6);
Alex McRee(9); Joshua Fields(11).
LSU – Jared Bradford; Daniel Bradshaw(7); Paul Bertuccini(9); Ryan Verdugo(11).
T-4:03 A-7209
HR UGA – Matt Olson (5); Robbie O’Bryan (1).
HR LSU – Michael Hollander (3); Blake Dean (8).
Weather: 82 degrees and sunny
Actual attendance: 2,712
Georgia CF Matt Cerione was ejected in the top of the 11th inning.
Moreau faced 1 batter in the 3rd.