No. 1 Tigers make largest comeback of the year to beat 'Bama and win series

No. 1 LSU trailed Alabama 6-1 after 2½ innings Saturday night, but little did the Crimson Tide know they were sitting behind the eight-ball.

As in eight Tigers’ runs in their last three innings at the plate.

And eight LSU pitchers trying to hold the rope while allowing eight runs and walking eight batters.

After just more than three hours of unpredictable plot changes in breezy Alex Box Stadium, the Tigers emerged with a 12-8 victory in their largest comeback of the year to win their sixth SEC series of the season.

The Tigers (34-8, 14-5 SEC West) attempt their second straight league sweep in Sunday’s series finale at 1 p.m. vs. the Crimson Tide (30-14, 9-11 SEC West). That may be a tall order considering LSU head coach Jay Johnson just about emptied his bullpen securing Saturday’s win as he used a season-high seven relievers.

As it turned out, the Tigers had enough arms because LSU’s offense showed why it ranks third nationally in runs scored per game.

LSU bashed three home runs but none bigger than catcher Hayden Travinski’s majestic three-run left field rainbow in the sixth inning that gave the Tigers the lead for the rest of the night.

“He's got a beat-up body since we've been here,” Johnson said of Travinski. “So it just made it really hard for him to compete for that initial starting spot but he stayed engaged. You could see some improvement in the swing and the approach as crazy as that sounds in his fourth year.”

LSU’s pitching standouts were sophomore relievers Javen Coleman and Thatcher Hurd, unlikely heroes considering some of the mental and physical obstacles they’ve had to overcome.

Coleman was credited with his first win since Feb. 19, 2022 before he underwent Tommy Johns surgery that sidelined him until just a couple of weeks ago. In just his third appearance this season, he threw 2.1 hitless and scoreless innings while striking out six and walking three.

Hurd, a transfer from UCLA who has struggled mightily in his 12 previous appearances and had 20.25 ERA in the four SEC games he had played, tossed 1.2 scoreless and hitless innings. He got the final five outs of the game and his first save as a Tiger.

“I've never seen anybody recover from the Tommy John surgery in the fashion that he has,” Johnson said of Coleman. “It's totally credited to his motivation, his work ethic. What a shot in the arm for our team to have him available.

“Thatcher was in complete control. We all know his stuff's good enough, but his mindset improved tremendously here over the last couple of weeks. He's going to be a special pitcher.”

The Tigers had 10 hits off four Alabama pitchers with half of the hits belonging to 3 and 4-hole hitters Dylan Crews and Tommy White.

Center fielder Crews, who leads college baseball in batting average, on-base percentage and runs scored, was 2 for 4 with an RBI, two runs scored and a walk.

Third baseman White, No. 1 nationally in RBI per game and third in total RBI, was 3 for 4 with three runs scored and three RBI on a third-inning homer that started LSU’s comeback.

By that time, Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon wasn't around to see it. He was ejected by home plate umpire Joe Harris for arguing after losing a video review.

It came with no outs in the second inning when Alabama catcher Dominic Tamez apparently caught a foul ball out by LSU designed hitter Cade Beloso just inside the screen behind home plate. Harris immediately ruled it “no catch” saying the ball grazed the screen before Tamez caught it.

Alabama, which closed Friday’s 8-6 loss to LSU by scoring four runs in the ninth, led off Saturday’s re-match with hot bats.

LSU starting pitcher Ty Floyd was hammered for six runs on six hits in 2.2 innings as the Crimson Tide jumped to a 6-1 lead through the top of the third inning.

Alabama leadoff hitter Jim Jarvis parked Floyd’s third pitch of the game high into the right field stands for a solo homer. A one-out RBI double by Tamez gave Alabama a 2-0 first-inning lead.

The Tigers got their first run in the second by loading the bases and scoring on a double play grounder by Travinski.

Floyd used eight pitches to retire Alabama’s first two batters in the top of third before having a colossal meltdown.

Against the next five Crimson Tide batters he faced, Floyd issued three walks, gave up an RBI double to third baseman Colby Shelton and a two-run single to second baseman Ed Johnson and threw a wild pitch that scored a run.

The Tigers cut the lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the third when White rocketed a two-out, three-run homer well over the right-field wall.

Alabama right fielder Andrew Pinckney hit his second homer in as many nights when he led off the Tide fourth with a solo dinger for a 7-4 advantage.

LSU bats then went silent with six straight batters being retired. Yet Alabama's offense, which produced runs in the first three of four innings, got put in the deep freeze in the fifth and slxth innings by Coleman.

The lethal lefty struck out the side in the Alabama fifth and whiffed three of the five Tide batters he faced in the sixth.

LSU flipped the script with a four-run sixth accomplished with just two hits, a walk and an Alabama error to grab an 8-7 lead.

Crews led off the inning with a walk, advanced to third on White’s single and scored on Beloso’s fielders’ choice RBI grounder to Alabama second baseman Ed Johnson.

Johnson had an easy throw for a force out of White at second base but he was charged with a throwing error.

It was a costly mistake.

Two batters later, Alabama inserted left-handed reliever Alton Davis II to face LSU righty batter Travinski.

And just as the junior from Shreveport’s Airline High did in the Tigers’ 7-6 win at Ole Miss last Sunday when he launched a two-out game-winning three-run homer in the top of the ninth, he turned an 0-2 Davis’ fastball into a three-run bases-clearing 351-foot dagger.

LSU added a run in the seventh when Beloso’s perfectly executed one-out suicide squeeze bunt scored Crews.

The Tigers used five pitchers to get the final nine outs for the win.

Reliever Blake Money did his one-inning job, retiring Alabama three up and three down in the Alabama seventh.

Lefty reliever Nate Ackenhausen retired Alabama’s leadoff hitter in the Crimson Tide eighth on four pitches before Johnson immediately pulled him for Gavin Guidry.

Guidry lasted five pitches (one of them a wild pitch), gave up two singles and was replaced by Riley Cooper.

Cooper threw a wild pitch that scored Pinckney to reduce LSU’s lead to 8-7 while walking Tide first baseman Drew Williamson.

That was Cooper’s cue to exit and for UCLA transfer Hurd and his shaky string of performances against SEC competition. He pulled off the escape, striking out Tamez and getting pinch-hitter Will Coda to fly out to right field to snuff the rally.

The Tigers picked up three insurance runs in their half of the eighth. Nine-hole hitter Jared Jones hit a two-run homer and Crews contributed an RBI single.

Hurd used just seven pitches to retire Alabama in the ninth to tuck away the victory.

"I'm really proud of the way our kids came out ready to play, excited to play, and came out hot, but LSU is a great team," Bohannon said. "When you go on the road in front of 12,000 people against the No. 1 team in the country you've got to be flawless. We gave them five free baserunners with walks and HBPs and we made two errors. When you score eight, that's got to be enough to win."