Dogs Upend Top-Ranked Tigers 7-3
March 26, 2004 | Baseball
Official Game Statistics
BATON ROUGE, La. -- No. 24 Mississippi State struck for four runs in the third inning and rode the pitching of Jamie Gant and Saunders Ramsey to a 7-3 upset of top-ranked LSU (19-4, 2-2 SEC) before a paid crowd of 8,521 Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The Bulldogs (14-6, 2-2 SC) scored seven runs off LSU ace Justin Meier (4-1) in the first five innings, with freshman Brian LaNinfa driving in four of the runs on a 3-for-3 plate performance.
State loaded the bases but failed to score in the second inning. But State took the lead an inning later on singles by Jeffrey Rea, Brad Corley, Jeff Hunter and LaNinfa. LSU booted an infield grounder off the bat of Steve Gendron, making all of the runs in the inning unearned. Gendron lashed his team-leading eighth double of the season to extend his hitting streak to a team season-best 11 games.
State got back-to-back doubles by Rea and Gendron to plate a run in the fourth and expanded the lead to 7-0 with a three-hit, two-run fifth. Brad Corley opened the frame with his third consecutive single, Hunter laced a double down the left field line, and LaNinfa followed with his third straight single to send them both home.
Gant two-hit the Tigers before giving up a two-out single to Matt Horwath in the fifth. J.C. Lead-off hitter J.C. Holt followed with his third home run of the game. Gant allowed three runs on five hits, walked three and struck out four.
The Tigers scored again in the sixth when Blake Gill opened with a double into the leftfield corner and scored two batters later on a dropped fly ball in left field.
Saunders Ramsey came on in relief in the sixth, pitching 3-1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief to earn his third save. The junior right-hander struck out four and extended his string of scoreless innings in relief to 17-1/3 innings.
LSU, out-hit 14-6, kept the game relatively close by turning five double plays.
The teams continue their weekend series at Alex Box Stadium Saturday at 2 p.m.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 7, LSU 3
MSU 004 120 000 -- 7-14-1LSU 000 021 000 -- 3-6-1
WP -- Jamie Gant (3-3). SV -- Saunders Ramsey (3). LP -- Justin Meier (4-1). HR -- J.C. Holt (3). T -- 2:42. ATT -- 6,388 (8,521 paid).
