BATON ROUGE — LSU junior right-handed pitcher Bo Pettit was named the Southeastern Conference’s Pitcher of the Week by the league office in Birmingham on Monday morning. The Houston native went 2-0 this week as the Fighting Tigers swept four games.
Pettit started the week by throwing five shutout innings in a 9-5 victory over Tulane in front of an NCAA record crowd of 27,673 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Against the Green Wave, Pettit gave up just one walk and one hit while striking out five, and allowed just one ball to be hit out of the infield. He retired Tulane in order in each of the first four innings, striking out four batters and retiring the other eight on ground balls.
On Sunday, Pettit claimed his first SEC victory in nearly a month when he defeated Georgia, giving the Tigers a three-game sweep of the defending SEC champion Bulldogs, who came into the weekend leading the East Division. Pettit was shaky early, but settled down to throw eight strong innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and striking out seven. In his three previous SEC starts, which were losses to Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn, Pettit threw just 9 1/3 innings, giving up 18 runs on 17 hits and walking 18 batters.
For the season, Pettit is 5-5 with a 3.69 ERA, striking out 73 batters in 68 1/3 innings. He threw the Tigers’ only shutout of the season, spinning a complete game four-hitter for a 6-0 victory over Vanderbilt on March 15.
LSU (24-13, 8-6 SEC) will be looking to win its sixth consecutive game Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. when the Tigers host cross-town rival Southern (31-4). The Tigers resume SEC play this weekend with a three-game series at East Division leader South Carolina (28-8, 9-5).