A pair of five-run Kentucky innings spurs No. 11 UK past No. 1 LSU
No. 1 LSU has had just a handful of baseball games this season when it has come become completely unraveled.
But now in the last three SEC weekends, the Tigers have imploded for a trio of losses in which they’ve allowed opponents double-digit run totals.
The latest was Friday night in Alex Box Stadium when LSU’s struggling pitching, poor fielding and largely non-opportunistic hitting helped No. 11 Kentucky erase a four-run deficit in a 13-10 Wildcats’ win that evened the SEC series at 1-1.
Weather permitting, the series finale is set for 1 p.m. Saturday. Forecasts call for rain all morning with a 56 percent chance of rain at first pitch.
The Tigers (28-6 overall, 8-5 SEC West) led UK (28-6, 10-4 SEC East) 6-2 after four innings. But Kentucky hit the gas pedal with a five-run fifth spurred by a misplayed two-out fly that became a three-run triple and a five-run seventh in which the Wildcats hammered LSU freshman reliever Griffin Herring.
"We dictated the type of game that was played last night (Thursday's 16-6 LSU game 1 win) and Kentucky definitely did that tonight," LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. "We've got to be better from the mound. We've got to be better defensively.
"I like the fight of the team, that's great. But if we're a little bit better, we win that game relatively going away. We just didn't play our brand of baseball. And that's the difference in the game."
Three LSU pitchers gave up 14 UK hits. Kentucky designated hitter Chase Stanke, a .176 hitter heading into the game, went 3 for 4 with a two-run homer (his first of the year) in the second and RBI singles in the fifth and seven innings.
The Tigers, ranked eighth nationally and first in the SEC, committed a season-high three errors including one each in UK’s two highest scoring innings.
The play that wasn’t ruled an LSU error, but easily could have been, flipped game momentum Kentucky’s way.
LSU's Herring was one out away to limiting UK to one run in the fifth when Tigers’ right fielder Brayden Jobert overran a drifting fly towards the foul line off the bat of UK right fielder Nolan McCarthy. Jobert slammed on the brakes and tried to dive back, but the ball dropped in for a bases-clearing three-RBI triple that tied the game 6-6.
Stanke immediately followed with a lead-grabbing RBI and then UK pushed its margin to 12-6 in the top of the seventh.
LSU, which hit into rally-killing double plays in the second, fifth, sixth and ninth innings, managed a run in the bottom of the seventh on Tigers’ shortstop Jordan Thompson’s fielders choice RBI grounder.
But it was also Thompson who struck out to end LSU’s three-run eighth inning in which the Tigers cut the lead to 12-10. Third baseman Tommy White had an RBI bases-loaded no-outs walk to force in a run and first baseman Jared Jones stroked a one-out two RBI single.
Prior to the game, Johnson was forced to reshuffle his starting lineup since leadoff hitter/second baseman Gavin Dugas is being shelved for at least a week. He injured his shoulder trying to spear a rising liner in the seventh inning of Thursday night's series opener.
Johnson adjusted LSU’s batting order by moving everyone up a spot from the No. 1 through No.7 hitters, sliding left fielder Tre’ Morgan into the leadoff spot. Also, Johnson inserted new starting second baseman Ben Nippolt into 8-hole and kept catcher Alex Milazzo in the 9-hole.
The revamped batting order produced six runs for the Tigers in the first four innings, much needed in the beginning because of LSU hurler Ty Floyd’s shaky start.
He threw 26 of 51 pitches for balls in the opening two innings, allowing four hits including UK designated hitter Chase Stanke’s two-run homer for a 2-1 lead.
But after LSU retook the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the second on Morgan’s two-RBI single, Floyd found a pitching rhythm.
He had an 11-pitch third inning and a nine-pitch fourth inning, retiring seven straight UK batters dating back to the final out in the Kentucky second. It was a welcome contrast from the Wildcats’ first two innings in which they had seven base runners.
LSU pushed its lead to 6-2 in the fourth. Center fielder Dylan Crews smashed an RBI double followed by third baseman Tommy White’s 414-foot two-run homer to straightaway centerfield.