LSU Rallies to Down UC Irvine 9-7 at Baton Rouge Super Regional
June 08, 2008 | Baseball
BATON ROUGE, La. --- LSU stunned UC Irvine with five runs in the top of the ninth inning Sunday to defeat the Anteaters, 9-7, in the Baton Rouge Super Regional at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers' victory forces a third, and deciding game, Monday at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) on ESPN2 and KUCI/88.9 FM with the winner advancing to Omaha and the College World Series.
UCI (42-17) received a strong outing from starting pitcher Daniel Bibona, who struck out eight, walked just one and allowed three runs in 7.1 innings.
The `Eaters scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-2 lead but was held to just one hit in the final five innings with starter Jared Bradford and Louis Coleman combining for five shutout innings to close the game.
UCI jumped on the board on a sacrifice fly from Jeff Cusick in the third and scored six runs in the fourth as 10 batters came to the plate. Brock Bardeen led off the inning with a solo home run. UCI then put runners on first and third with one out and Tony Asaro scored from third on a safety squeeze by Eric Deragisch to give UCI a 2-0 lead. The Anteaters then strung together three straight RBI singles to score four runs before Bardeen grounded out into an inning-ending double play.
LSU, the national No. 7 seed, pushed across two runs in the eighth, setting up its ninth-inning rally. The Tigers loaded the bases against Eric Pettis and Jared Mitchell drew a full-count walk to push a run across. Nick Pontiff's followed with a fielder's choice that scored a run and Blake Dean delivered a clutch single to tie the game. Sean Ochinko came up with an RBI double to give LSU the eventual game-winning run. DJ LeMahieu's sacrifice fly yielded an insurance run and capped the scoring for the Tigers (47-17-1).
Pettis fell to 4-3 with the loss while four Anteaters had two hits apiece. Catcher Aaron Lowenstein drove in two runs on 1 for 3 hitting.
Coleman improved to 7-0 with three shutout inning in relief as Mitchell paced the LSU attack with three hits and two RBI.
