Tigers Nip State 3-2 To Claim Series At Dudy Noble Field; Meet Again Wednesday In SEC Tournament
May 22, 2005 | Baseball
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Shortstop Derek Hebert delivered his secondgame-winning hit of the weekend, launching a solo home run in the sixth inthat broke a 2-2 tie and lifted the ninth-ranked Tigers (38-18, 18-12 SEC)to a series-clinching 3-2 win over Mississippi State (36-20, 13-16 SEC).
The win also clinched a share of the SEC Western Division crown for the theTigers. Despite dropping its first home SEC series of the season, theBulldogs earned a berth in this week's SEC Baseball Tournament May 25-29.State the No. 7 seed, will meet LSU Wednesday at 10 a.m. to open thedouble-elimination tournament at the Hoover Met near Birmingham, Ala.
"This was a great college baseball series," said MSU skipper Ron Polk. "Allthree games could have gone either way with a play here or an extra hitthere. I thought we hit the ball better in the first two games, but LSU dida better job with its offensive production. Still, we had our opportunities.I am happy for our guys that they'll get a chance to go to Hoover and playin the SEC Tournament. It's a great atmosphere for college baseball andwe've enjoyed some success playing at the Hoover Met."
Starting pitchers Jon Crosby (5-3) and Greg Smith (10-2) squared off in apitching duel, with Smith getting the win with a strong 6-1/3 inningpitching performance. The LSU lefty scattered eight hits and struck out fiveand got the win, with Jason Determann working the final 2-2/3 innings toearn his seventh save. Crosby worked 5-1/3 innings, allowing three runs on10 hits. He worked around major problems win the third when LSU opened theinning with three consecutive hits but scored only one run, that on a ClayHarris sacrifice fly. The Tigers got three hits again in the fifth, taking a2-1 lead on a Harris single to left.
State scored its first run during a three-hit third inning surge. BrianLaNinfa and Michael Rutledge opened the frame with singles and an infieldgroundout by Ed Easley pushed LaNinfa home to tie the game at 1-1.
State trailed 2-1 in the fifth when Rutledge launched his first career homerun, a shot that carried over the left field fence and tied the score at2-2.
But Determann held State scoreless down the stretch, working around aninherited two-on, one-out situation in the seventh and one-out singles byJoseph Hunter and Joseph McCaskill in the ninth. Determann fanned BradCorley, LaNinfa and Rutledge to preserve the win and give LSU its sixthstraight SEC weekend series win.
Hunter, McCaskill, and Rutledge had two hits each for State while Blake Gillpaced LSU's 13-hit attack with a 4-for-5 afternoon.
The Bulldogs enter the SEC Tournament seeded seventh and bracketed with No.2 seed LSU, No.. 3 seed Tennessee and No. 6 seed South Carolina.
Top-seeded Florida meets No. 8 seed Arkansas and No. 4 seed Mississippitakes on No. 5 seed Alabama in the tournament's other four-team bracket.
LSU 3, MISSISSIPPI STATE 2
LSU 001 011 000 ?€? 3-13-0MSU 001 010 000 ?€? 2-10-1WP --- Greg Smith (10-2). LP --- Jon Crosby (5-3). SV --- Jason Determann(7). HR --- Derek Hebert (3). Michael Rutledge (1). T --- 2:50. ATT ---4,569 (6,850 Paid).
