Tigers still have hopes of at-large bid after win over Alabama
Published 6:00 pm Monday, May 14, 2018
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BATON ROUGE — Best way to look at it? LSU held serve Sunday with a 7-3 victory over Alabama that gave them an SEC series win over the last-place Crimson Tide.
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“I don’t think we clinched anything,” LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said of the Tigers bid for a late-season run that could land them in the NCAA baseball tournament. “But if we would have lost this game, I think we would have lost our chance for an at-large bid.”
Instead the Tigers (31-21, 14-13 SEC) took a novel approach by grabbing an early lead for the first time this weekend and building on it late to take most of the mystery out of what Mainieri had said was a “must-win game.”
They’ll still have work to do with a road series at Auburn this weekend followed by the SEC tournament.
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The Tigers still haven’t won an SEC series on the road this season, but for the first time since 2003 they didn’t lose one at home.
“We had to win this game,” Mainieri said. “Our backs were against the proverbial wall.
“We’ve been behind for two games, you start pressing. It sure was a lot more fun getting a lead. The day is not as long when you’re not trying to fight from behind all day.”
Alabama did lead briefly with an unearned run in the second, but Austin Bain tied it in the bottom of the inning with a solo home run and Beau Jordan’s RBI single put the Tigers up for good, 2-1, the following inning.
Daniel Cabrera took over from there, going 2-for-2 with four RBIs, including a two-run homer in the fifth and a two-run double in the sixth.
But the story of the game, Manieri said, was Nick Bush’s emergency start on the mound after AJ Labas was scratched with a sore shoulder.
Bush (1-1), whom Mainieri was hoping to get three or four innings from, instead gave the Tigers six strong ones, giving up only the unearned run in the second and Keith Holcombe’s solo homer in the sixth.
Bush has been steady out of the bullpen most of the year, but was roughed up in his last appearance last week against Arkansas.
“And look at the way he bounced back today,” Mainieri said. “He’s just amazing.
“Just can’t say enough about the job that Nick Bush did for us. Beginning of story, end of story.”
Bush allowed five hits and walked only one.
Devin Fontenot pitched LSU to the ninth with two shut out innings, and Todd Peterson settled down to get the final three outs after Bama opened the ninth against him with a triple and double back to back to get the Tide’s other run.
LSU 7, Alabama 3