The razor-thin margin for error in baseball’s postseason doesn’t always show up in the box score.

Officially LSU didn’t make an error in Saturday’s super regional opener at Tennessee.

But a mental miscue opened the door for two of the three runs Tennessee pushed across in the decisive sixth inning en route to a 4-2 victory over the Tigers.

Third baseman Cade Doughty hit a home run in the second inning and came within a few feet of tying the game in the ninth on what would have been a 2-run bomb.

But the game turned on one brief bit of Doughty indecision in the disastrous sixth after LSU turned the game over to freshman lefthander Javen Coleman.

Coleman, one of the bullpen stars of LSU’s Eugene regional victory, inherited a 2-1 lead after five of starter Ma’Khail Hilliard’s best innings of the season.

“He was really outstanding,” head coach Paul Manieri said of Hilliard. “But we were getting ready to go to the top of the order and they’d already seen Ma’Khail twice.

“I thought, especially with two lefthanders coming up, I had a lot of confidence it was the move to make.

“Javen Coleman was the right guy for that situation.”

But Coleman gave up two hits and walked three while theVols (49-16) rallied.

Still, he probably deserved a better fate.

“Aweak ground ball and  that craziness happened,” Mainieri said.

The Vols got a walk and a double to put runners at second and third with one out and were going to score the tying run on a slow bouncer to Doughty anyway.

But Doughty hesitated in making the throw to first and then  made an ill-advised attempt to tag the runner coming to third. By the time he realized he was too far away for the tag, his throw to first was too late to get anybody.

“We thought he ran out of the baseline,” Mainieri said, adding that he hadn’t talked to Doughty about what happened.

The Vols then scored the go-ahead run on another ground out ­ ­— which would have been the third out — and added another on an RBI single.

“He settled in and pitched great after that,” Mainieri said of Coleman.

But the damage was done.

The Tigers will try to stave off elimination — and the end of Mainieri’s coaching career — for the fifth time this postseason in today’s game at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.

They have been there before.

The Tigers won four straight in the same must-win situation in the Eugene Regional after losing their opener.

But, counting a weekend sweep in the regular season, they’re now 0-4 against the Vols  this year by a total of six runs.

“I thought our guys competed hard,” Mainieri said. “The difference in the game was very slim again. We’ve played these guys four times and by the slimmest of margins they’ve come out on top all four.”

At least LSU will have its ace on the mound today with Landon Marceaux (7-6, 2.44 ERA) going against Tennessee lefthander Will Heflin (3-3, 4.07).

“We’ve been here before,” centerfielder Drew Bianco said. “That’s when we started playing our best baseball (in Eugene). Hopefully we can do that tomorrow … come out swinging itagainst a good arm and know Marceaux is gonna do his thing.”

Marceaux won’t be able to do much better than what Hilliard gave the Tigers.

With total command of his big-bending breaking ball, Hilliard allowed just one run on three hits while striking out six without a walk.

He left with a 2-1 lead after five innings before the nightmare sixth inning.

LSU out-hit the Vols 8-6, but struck out 16 times in the game — 12 against starter Chad Dallas, an Orange, Texas native who fanned 11 Tigers in his regular season outing against them, and four more against reliever Sean Hunley.

“He threw an awful lot of sliders,” Mainieri said. “We didn’t have much of an answer for it … we just had a tough time making contact against him.”

Still, after Doughty’s near-miss for game-tying home run in the ninth,  LSU still got the tying runs to second and third with two outs. But Jordan Thompson struck out on a 3-2 count.

“We had we had a chance there in the ninth, and we just couldn’t get the hit to tie the ballgame,” Mainieri said. “It’s a tough loss, but agreat ballgame, great atmosphere. We have to put it behind us now and get ready for tomorrow.”

LSU scored first on Doughty’s solo home run in the second, a line shot that blistered its way through the heaviest of the night’s rains.

Tennessee tied it shortly after play resumed in the bottom of the third when Jordan Beck led off with a double and scored after consecutive ground outs.

The Tigers took the lead after getting the first two runners aboard in the fifth when Cade Beloso was hit by a pitch following Drew Bianco’s leadoff single.

Bianco eventually scored when he stole third and continued home when the throw skipped into the leftfield.

There was a chance for more when Beloso ended up at second still with no outs, but Dallas struck out the next two batters and got Dylan Crews on a ground out.

HITS & MISSES

* PLAYER OF THE GAME: Tennessee starter Chad Dallas, an Orange, Texas, native,  struck out a career-high 12 Tigers in just six innings while holding the Tigers to two runs on six hits in six innings. He struck out 11 batters in his regular season outing against LSU.

* PLAY OF THE GAME: With runners at second and third and one out in the sixth, Tennessee was going to score the tying run on a ground ball to LSU baseman Cade Doughty. But Doughty tried to make a tag on the runner coming to third and, by the time he realized he was too far away to tag him, his throw to first was too late to get anybody out. It helped open the door for the two more runs that otherwise would not have scored to put the go-ahead runs that put the Vols up 4-2.

* WEB GEM: UT second baseman Max Ferguson made a diving, backhand catch to his right to snag a looper by LSU’s Alex Milazzo to lead off the third inning.  

* OOPS: LSU’s Dylan Crews led off the eighth with a single, but one out later, after Tre’ Morgan struck out, Crews had second base stolen on the whiff, but over-slid the bag on the slick artificial surface and was tagged to end the inning.

* STAT OF THE GAME: LSU struck out 16 times, 12 against Dallas and four against  reliever Sean Hunley. Tre’ Morgan, who rarely strikes out, was fanned four times.

* ANNOYANCE OF THE GAME: After a sun-splashed pregame, shortly after first pitch it began raining, fairly hard at times. But the teams played through ­it — the field is all articial turf except for the mound —until the start of the top of the third inning when lightning was detected in the area. The delay lasted approximately 45 minutes.

* WATERPROOF: Doughty hit a laser shot of a home run through the hardest of the rainfall in the top of  the second to put the Tigers up 1-0.

Scooter Hobbs

 

LSU’s Drew Bianco rounds third on his way to scoring a wild to third base in the Tigers game Saturday at Tennessee

Gus Stark/Special to the American Pres