Mississippi State
LSU
Four-Hit Tigers Clinch Series With 3-1 Win
January 01, 1970 | Baseball
* Official Statistics (PDF)
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Nicholas Pontiff's two-run single in the seventh inning broke a 1-1 deadlock and lifted Louisiana State (23-18-1, 8-9-1 SEC) to a series-clinching 3-1 Sunday afternoon win at Dudy Noble Field. Pontiff lined a two-strike pitch back up the middle off MSU relief pitcher Aaron Weatherford to plate the go-ahead scores as the Tigers won the final two games of the weekend and claimed their second league series win on the road. MSU won Friday's series opener 12-3 only to suffer drop a 6-5 decision Saturday. Sunday's loss marked just the first time this year the 15th-ranked Bulldogs have dropped back-to-back games.
Sunday's contest began as a pitcher's duel between LSU's Jared Bradford and the Bulldogs' Josh Johnson. Johnson turned in perhaps his best outing of the year, as the senior from Caledonia, Miss., allowed two hits and one run in six innings of work. Johnson threw 80 pitches, struck out one and did not issue a walk.
Timely hits was the whole key, said coach Ron Polk. It's not always who has the most hits. It wasn't that we didn't pitch well today. Josh (Johnson) pitched very well for us today. He gave us what we needed, keeping us in the game. And Aaron (Weatherford) threw well in relief. The hit he gave up to Pontiff wasn't a particularly well-hit ball. It just found the right spot. And against Bradford, the runs were a little hard to come by for us today. We had scoring opportunities and hit the ball hard like we did yesterday, but we hit a lot of those right at them. If one or two of those well-hit balls get through, we probably win all three games. A lot of times it's those timely hits that separate the winners from the losers in the Southeastern Conference.
Weatherford relieved Johnson to start the LSU seventh inning. Lead-off hitter Jared Mitchell reached safely when his grounder to shortstop was misplayed. Mithell moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Weatherford retired Jason Lewis on a groundout to third, intentionally walked Ryan Schimpf, and got ahead of Pontiff 0-2 before the LSU second baseman laced his two-run single up the middle. Weatherford (3-2) then retired seven of the next eight batters he faced to finish the game for State.
Johnson seemed to breeze through the first three innings, retiring the Tigers in order in each frame. But iChris Jackson doubled off the centerfield wall to open the fourth and later scored on Blake Dean's groundout to first base.
LSU starter Jared Bradford (7-2) faced the minimum batters through the first five frames, negating a pair of Brandon Turner singles when the Bulldogs hit into inning-ending double plays in both the first and third frames. State pulled even at 1-1 in the sixth inning when freshman third baseman Connor Powers delivered his seventh home run of the year, a towering shot to left center. It would be the only run of the game for the Bulldogs, though State put two runners on base off Bradford in the seventh, drew an inning-opening walk but failed to score in the eighth, and mounted a two-out threat in the ninth. Bradford allowed a run on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Relief pitcher Shane Ardoin, who replaced Bradford in the eighth, retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth before walking pinch-hitters Brian LaNinfa and Jet Butler. Connor Powers kept the inning alive with a single to left. LSU brought on a second relief pitcher, Paul Bertuccini ended the game and picked up his third save when Mark Goforth's ground ball up the middle was gloved by shortstop Michael Hollander and flipped to Nicholas Pontiff at second base for the game-ending third out.
State out-hit LSU 7-4, matching a season-low for hits allowed in a game by the Bulldog pitching staff. Two of those Tiger hits came off the bat of Chris Jackson. The seven Bulldog hits tied for the second fewest by Bulldog batters this season. Freshman Brandon Turner, who finished with an 8-for-14 series, collected his third three-hit performance in his last four games and raised his SEC-leading batting average to .444. He also extended his hitting streak to a team season-longest 16 games. MSU's other freshman starter, third baseman Connor Powers, went 2-for-4 and drove in the only run of the game for State with his sixth-inning home run.
The back-to-back losses to LSU marked only the first time this season the Bulldogs have fallen in consecutive contests and the only times this season in 20 games when State games when MSU out-hit its opponent.
MSU attracted 13,859 fans for its third home SEC weekend series of the year. State later hosts SEC West foes Auburn May 4-6) and Alabama (May 17-19). Game time for the Saturday game of the Auburn series has been moved to 6 p.m. for a Comcast Sports Southeast telecast.
The Bulldogs continue their homestand with a pair of weeknight games against instate Conference USA rival Southern Miss. Game times are set for 6:30 p.m. both Tuesday and Wednesday at Dudy Noble Field. MSU then returns to the road for SEC competition, testing the Mississippi Rebels in a three-game weekend series April 27-29 at Oxford-University Park.
