LSU

No. 1 Tigers outlast Kentucky, 7-3

Glenn Guilbeau

BATON ROUGE – No. 1 LSU did to Kentucky in baseball what Notre Dame could not do to No. 1 Kentucky in basketball – outlast and beat the Wildcats.

LSU’s Chris Chinea canned a 3-pointer (three-run home run), and Jared Foster delivered a 2-pointer (two-run home run) in the bottom of the eighth inning to break up a 2-2 tie and give the Tigers a 7-3 victory over Kentucky in front of about 8,300 at Alex Box Stadium Saturday night. The baseball game ended just as the No. 1 Wildcats held on to beat Notre Dame 68-66 in the NCAA Tournament in Cleveland to reach the Final Four at 38-0.

Chinea’s homer was not a swish by any means. It got by charging center fielder Kyle Barrett and rolled all the way to the wall and under it as Barrett threw up his hands in hopes of a ground rule double while Chinea rounded third and scored. Alex Box ground rules state that a ball lodged under the fence cannot be ruled a ground rule double as it is a live ball, so Chinea kept his inside-the-park homer after a lengthy discussion by umpires, and LSU took a 5-2 lead. The ball could be seen clearly from the pressbox.

“I could see it,” Chinea said.

Kade Scivicque and Andrew Stevenson were aboard with singles before Chinea came up. Chris Sciambra singled after Chinea’s homer, and Jared Foster hit a two-run home run later in the inning for a 7-2 advantage.

Kentucky pushed across a run in the ninth on a two-out RBI double by JaVon Shelby to cut it to 7-3 off reliever Alden Cartwright, who struck out Dorian Hairston to end the game.

The Tigers (23-4, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) will try to take the series two games to one at 11 a.m. Sunday in the series finale. Kentucky won 5-4 in 12 innings Friday night. Freshman right-hander Jake Godfrey (5-0, 2.25 ERA) will start for LSU against junior right-hander Kyle Cody (2-2, 4.88 ERA).

LSU reliever Zac Person (1-0) picked up the win as he was the pitcher of record when the Tigers went ahead in the bottom of the eighth. He allowed three hits and one run in the top of the eighth when Kentucky tied 2-2 on an RBI single by Greg Fettes. Reliever Andrew Nelson (2-1) took the loss.

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on a sacrifice fly to center by Chinea. Scivicque scored after reaching second on a two-base throwing error by third baseman Riley Mahan and getting to third on Andrew Stevenson’s ground out. Kentucky tied it 1-1 in the sixth off LSU starter Alex Lange, who walked Storm Wilson to lead off the inning. Wilson reached second on a passed ball by Scivicque at catcher and scored on Marcus Carson’s single.

LSU went up 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Connor Hale doubled and later scored on Stevenson’s double play grounder. Lange tied his career high for strikeouts with 13 in seven innings. He allowed six hits and one run.