LSU holds off Arkansas to even up series

Published 7:16 am Sunday, May 6, 2018

BATON ROUGE — No need to ask. Of course LSU’s bullpen again found a way to make it interesting.

But ever-optimistic head coach  Paul Mainieri came away thinking he may have found something, too.

Reliever Todd Peterson rescued struggling Caleb Gilbert in the ninth  inning and got three straight outs in a tough situation as the Tigers held on to beat Arkansas 6-4 and tie the SEC series at a game apiece.

And none of it would have been possible without an elusive clutch hit just when an tensive crowd at Alex Box Stadium must have been saying — to quote Mainieri — “Here we go again …”

Yet with LSU trailing 3-2 in the seventh inning, on the first pitch after Antoine Duplantis popped up for the second out with runners on second and third, Austin Bain clubbed a two-run double in the leftfield gap to put the Tigers up for good.

“Obviously, a desperately needed victory,” said Mainieri, who needs a late surge just to make the NCAA tournament.

LSU (27-20, 11-12 SEC) will play the rubber match against the SEC-West leading Hogs (33-14, 14-9) today at 2 p.m. with freshman righthander AJ Labas (5-1, 3.18 ERA) going against Arkansas righthander Isaiah Campbell (3.4, 4.17).

Devin Fontenot (1-0) got the win with three shut out innings in relief, but had thrown a season-high three innings and 46 pitches, prompting Mainieri to turn over a 6-3 lead to Caleb Gilbert.

“Caleb obviously didn’t have it,” Mainieri said after Gilbert didn’t record an out and gave up a four-pitch walk and and RBI single to the ninth inning’s first two hitters. He then opened with two balls when the next batter, Dominic Fletcher, came up as the potential tying run.

So Peterson inherited the 2-0 count in the heart of the Razorback order and promptly got a weak fly ball and then ended the game with back-to-back strike outs.

“Todd Peterson  gets the game ball,” Mainieri said. “Very difficult situation and just cutting it loose as hard as he could to get some really good hitters out. It turned out to be a really good win and maybe we found something with Peterson coming out of the pen.”

“That was an amazing performance.”

Bain, who was an option as the closer, instead stayed at first base after delivering the game’s key hit to put LSU ahead in the seventh.

His go-ahead double came one pitch after the crowd groaned at Duplantis’ pop-up, which looked to be a continuing trend of missed opportunities recently for the Tigers.

Just don’t ask Bain how he did it.

“I went up looking for a fastball and saw a slider,” Bain admitted. “Somehow my body adjusted — I don’t know how —and then I just hit it.”

“Then we got two lucky runs in the eighth,” Mainieri said of what turned out to be the difference in the game, aided by two Arkansas errors.

The Tigers actually scored the two runs — from first and second base — on a chopper toward the mound when Razorback pitcher Jake Reindl slipped and fell and then threw somewhat wildly, although the ball was very catchable before sailing toward the rightfield bullpen as Jake Feduccia and Beau Jordan circled the bases with the insurance runs.

“Just what we needed,” Mainieri said.

Ma’Khail Hilliard gave LSU five good innings despite leaving with a 3-2 deficit.

The freshman, as usual, wiggled out of several jams against the hot-hitting Razorbacks. He gave up a laser-shot two-run homer to Dominic Fletcher to tie the game at 2-2 in the third.

But the Razorbacks took the lead on his four-pitch walk in the fifth after two infield singles and a hit batter loaded the bases with one out.

It could have been worse, but Hilliard escaped further damage when shortstop Hal Hughes turned a nice double play. 

LSU got four of its nine hits in the first inning. But after RBI singles by  Duplantis and Jake Slaugher, a double play helped Arkansas starter Kacey Murphy get out with only two runs of damage and he settled in after that.

At one point he retired 10 straight before Beau Jordan led off the seventh by beating out a swinging bunt that sparked the decisive inning.

Brent Broussard followed with a traditional sacrifce bunt, but reached safely on a throwing error. 

Hal Hughes bunted both over for the first out and Zach Watson walked to load the bases before Duplantis popped out.

But Bain delivered when the Tigers needed it most with his two-run shot.

“This was a crucial victory because we’ve got our backs against the wall,” Mainieri said. “We’ve had difficulty holding leads late in games, but Todd Peterson was phenomenal out of the bullpen.”