SEC Baseball: LSU drops first SEC series to Kentucky
The LSU baseball team has had an amazing season thus far. The Tigers opened the season with a 22-3 record and captured the No. 1 ranking in the Baseball America magazine poll by March 9. Since being voted No. 1 the Tigers have held the top spot over the last three weeks. Unfortunately for LSU and their fans, anything can happen in baseball.
The unranked Kentucky Wildcats came into Baton Rouge this past weekend and won two out of three games against LSU knocking the Tigers out of the top spot in the college baseball rankings.
Kentucky won the first game Friday night 5-4 in 12 innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, LSU had the bases loaded with two outs for Connor Hale. Hale hit the ball hard between first and second base and it seemed like the winning run would score. However, the ball hit Tiger base runner Alex Bregman as he was running to second base for the third out of the inning.
Kentucky coach Gary Henderson said about that play, “That was a very unusual set of circumstances…that’s just being fortunate.”
On Saturday night the Tigers cruised to a 7-3 win over the Wildcats. LSU scored five of those runs in the eighth inning as first baseman Chris Chinea and second baseman Jared Foster hit home runs.
LSU’s Saturday night starter Alex Lange pitched seven innings and only gave six hits and one run. Lange matched a career high with 13 strikeouts in the win.
On Sunday, Riley Mahan, a pinch-hitter for Kentucky, stepped up to the plate in the top ninth with nobody on base and two outs. Kentucky was down 10-9 and was praying for a miracle. Mahan hit line drive to left which would have been a sure single but the left fielder Jared Foster dove and missed it and the ball kept rolling. By the time it was retrieved and thrown to home plate by shortstop Alex Bergman, Mahan had rounded the bases and tied the game at 10-all.
The Wildcats went on to score two more in the top of the 11th to clinch a 12-10 victory and two out of three games in the series. Kentucky had not taken series at LSU since 2007.
After the game Sunday, Riley Mahan said, “It was a huge weekend. Everybody backed each other up. Great crowds all weekend. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
In newest college baseball polls, LSU dropped from No. 1 to No. 4 in the USA Today poll and from No. 1 to No. 3 in Baseball America.
Kentucky improves to their season overall record to 18-10 while the Tigers’ record is now 23-5.
Written by Charlie Beuttel
Photo credit: lsusports.com; No. 35 Alex Lange breaks off a curveball for LSU.