BATON ROUGE — LSU second baseman JaCoby Jones delivered three hits, including a solo home run, and right-hander Matty Ott tied former LSU All-American Rick Greene’s school record for career saves as the seventh-ranked Tigers held off Mississippi Valley State, 10-8, Wednesday night in Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (9-0) improved to 4-0 all-time versus Mississippi Valley State. The Delta Devils (0-9) remained winless on the season.
Ott recorded his second save of the season and 29th of his career after pitching a perfect ninth. Right-hander Jimmy Dykstra (1-0), who relieved starter Daniel Bradshaw in the third inning, was credited with his first career victory at the Division I level. The sophomore fired 3.2 innings, allowing only one earned run on three hits.
“Matty Ott has saved so many big games for us during his career; tying the record of a great pitcher like Rick Greene is something of which he can be very proud,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “Hopefully, Matty will have the opportunity to earn many more saves this season and put that record out of reach for anyone else.”
Jones, a freshman from Richton, Miss., continued to shine at the plate with a 3-for-3 effort to go along with two RBI. His solo shot in the fifth was his third of the season. Right fielder Mason Katz batted 2-for-4 with two RBI, while lead-off hitter Trey Watkins stole a career-high three bases and scored twice.
“Mississippi Valley State is a very competitive, scrappy team and I’m just glad we won the game,” Mainieri said. “The last time we played them in 2009 it took a grand slam late in the game to beat them. I thought there were a lot of very positive factors in this win, and I’m very pleased we earned this victory.”
LSU jumped on the Delta Devils early, pushing six runs across in the bottom of the first inning to go up, 6-0. Third baseman Tyler Hanover, Katz, first baseman Alex Edward, catcher Jordy Snickeris and Jones all contributed with RBI singles in the frame.
The Delta Devils came right back in the top of the second with an RBI single by center fielder Matt Burton and a two-run homer by first baseman Derek Wallace to cut the deficit in half, 6-3.
Katz provided his second RBI single of the evening in the bottom of the second to put LSU up, 7-3.
Mississippi Valley State pushed two more runs across in the third to cut the lead to 7-5. However, the Tigers added a run in the fourth to take an 8-5 advantage when center fielder Mikie Mahtook scored from third on a wild pitch.
After the Delta Devils notched a run in the top of the fifth, Jones launched a solo shot to left, and Hanover executed a successful squeeze play to score Watkins from third and give the Tigers a 10-6 lead in the bottom of the frame.
The Delta Devils continued to fight valiantly against the Tigers, plating two more runs in the seventh to reduce the deficit to 10-8, but the LSU bullpen rose to the occasion in the late innings to preserve the victory.
Left-hander Chris Cotton fired a scoreless eighth before Ott shut the door on the Delta Devils in the ninth.
Mississippi Valley State starter Eric Dowell (0-3) was charged with the loss after giving up seven earned runs on nine hits and three walks in two innings.
LSU will take on Princeton in a three-game series this weekend in Alex Box Stadium. Game 1 begins Friday at 7 p.m. CST.
Live video, audio and stats of the game may be accessed in the Geaux Zone at www.LSUsports.net/HDbaseball. The contest can be also be heard on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
LSU 10, Miss. Valley State 8 (Mar 02, 2011 at Baton Rouge, La.)
Miss. Valley State.. 032 010 200 – 8 10 1 (0-9)
LSU…………………. 610 120 00X – 10 11 1 (9-0)
Pitchers: Miss. Valley State – DOWELL,Eric; HEFFLINGER,Ricky(3); JONES,Morris(4);
BARNES,Steven(6) and MING,Kylie; FANGONILO,Nick.
LSU – Daniel Bradshaw; Jimmy Dykstra(3); Nick Rumbelow(7); Kevin Berry(7); Chris Cotton(8); Matty Ott(9) and Jordy Snikeris.
Win-Jimmy Dykstra(1-0) Save-Matty Ott(2) Loss-DOWELL,Eric(0-3) T-2:35 A-9658
HR MVSU – WALLACE,Derek (1).
HR LSU – JaCoby Jones (3).
Actual Attendance: 3,563
Notes:
LSU reliever Matty Ott earns the 29th save of his career, tying Rick Greene (1990-92) as the Tigers’ all-time saves leader;
Mississippi Valley State head coach Doug Shanks was ejected in the top of the 9th inning.
DOWELL,Eric faced 2 batters in the 3rd.