RALLY TOSSEM: LSU BEATS TENNESSEE 6-3

Tigers score six in the ninth to steal game one

The most anticipated series of the baseball season got delayed by about three and a half hours and it was well worth the wait thanks to some late inning LSU magic.

LSU (35-8, 13-6) had a 9th inning for the ages Friday night/Saturday morning as the Tigers rallied to score six runs to beat Tennessee (34-8, 12-7) to take game one of the weekend series between the two most recent national champions.

Make no mistake, LSU was DEAD heading into the ninth inning. Up until the ninth inning, LSU had no runs, didn’t get a hit until the sixth inning, and only had managed six total base runners through the first eight innings. But a pair of errors by Tennessee third basemen Dean Curley, clutch singles by Dalton Beck and Derek Curiel, and a 452-foot B O M B by Bear Jones won the opening game of this crucial series for LSU.

Friday’s game started off as a pitcher’s duel between LSU’s Kade Anderson and Tennessee’s Liam Doyle. Doyle was good (6.2 innings, six strikeouts versus three walks, one hit and no runs), but Anderson was better. Anderson pitched into the eighth inning, throwing 114 pitches and striking out 11.

Anderson was victimized by a costly wild pitch in the sixth inning—though if anything it probably should have been charged a passed ball against Luis Hernandez—and Tennessee made the Tigers pay for the mistake. The wild pitch allowed Tennessee’s Gavin Kilen to move from first to second, and Andrew Fischer hit a single that allowed Kilen to come around for the game’s first run.

Fischer would beat Anderson for a second time, this time hitting a double off of him in the eighth inning. Anderson would be lifted for Zac Cowan and Tennessee would be able to bring Fischer home to double its lead to 2-0.

Down 2-0 heading into the ninth inning, Jay Johnson made a very wise move and took Cowan out of the game. Cowan, who only threw 13 pitches, is LSU’s best bullpen arm and Johnson shrewdly preserved him and put Jacob Mayers in the game instead. Tennessee would tack on one more run and if LSU were to rally, a hero had to emerge.

And emerge that hero did! But not from LSU’s team, no some kid in the student section got ejected from the game for throwing a ball onto the field and that’s when the rally began.

Things got started Ethan Frey reached base off a throwing error by Curley. Next, after Steven Milam struck out, Jake Brown was able to reach because of a second error by Curley. Then, Tanner Reaves walked to load the bases and Johnson called upon little-used Dalton Beck, who had only taken one (1) AB during SEC play prior to tonight. Beck rewarded the faith in him and smoked a single to center that scored two runs.

Chris Stanfield flew out to left for the second out, but the thing about baseball is you’ve gotta get all 27 outs to win a game and while Tennessee nearly finished the job they couldn’t quite get that final out.

Enter Derek Curiel who, down 1-2 in the count, roped a single to right to tie the game.

Three pitches later, Bear Jones blasted the biggest home run of his life (so far?) over the batter’s eye to give LSU a night they’ll never forget.

Game two of this pivotal series between the Tigers and Vols is scheduled to begin at 7:00 P.M. and the game will be televised on ESPNU.