Bulldogs Run Streak To 18 Straight, Beating LSU 11-1
March 24, 2006 | Baseball
* Official Statistics (PDF)
BATON ROUGE, La. - Top-ranked Mississippi State piled up a season-high18 hits, four of them home runs, and picked up another solid pitchingperformance by senior Brooks Dunn en route to a series-opening 11-1 winover No. 13 LSU Friday night at Alex Box Stadium. The win extendedState's school-best season-opening win streak to 18 games.
The game was interrupted briefly while stadium security officialscorralled an unclothed fan that made a roundtrip jaunt through theoutfield.
The loss was LSU's biggest since State handed the Tigers a 15-4setback in 2002.
The Bulldogs set the tempo of the game early with three consecutivehome runs during a four-run second inning. Dunn (5-0), meanwhile, workeda strong 7-1/3 innings as the Bulldogs ran their SEC record to 3-0. TheMSU lefty scattered five hits with four walks and four strikeouts,blanking LSU over the first six innings before the Tigers plated a runin the seventh.
"Any time you beat LSU on the road you've done some things well,"said MSU skipper Ron Polk. "This is a hitter's ball park, and we hitthe ball hard most of the night and got some timely two-out hits. Brookshad another strong pitching performance on a chilly night and thedefense played well behind him."
The Bulldogs used the long ball to take a 4-0 lead in second inning.Matt Richardson, making his first start in right field, ripped a two-outfirst pitch off the Alex Box Stadium scoreboard with a runner aboard fora 2-0 lead, and Michael Rutledge and Jeff Butts then followed with soloshots.
State expanded the lead with a run in the fourth. LSU starter DanielForrer (1-1) issued a pair of two-out walks and Butts followed with asingle to right. Forrer, making his first SEC start, gave up six runs oneight hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Nolan Cain gave up eightmore hits and the other five MSU runs, while Chris Cahill came on tofinish the ninth and end the final Bulldog scoring spree.
MSU stretch the lead to 7-0 in the seventh. Jeffrey Rea and ThomasBerkery singled and Joseph Hunter followed with a two-run double toleft.
LSU plated its lone run in the bottom of the seventh. Jordan Mayerlegged out an infield single to open the inning, Steve Broschofsky drewa walk, and Mayer scored on the second of two infield groundouts.
The Bulldogs left the bases loaded without scoring in the eighth, butin the ninth MSU erupted for four runs on six hits. Junior Brian LaNinfasent a towering shot over the right field fence with a runner on base.It was the second of five consecutive Bulldog hits in the inning. JeffButts then drew a bases loaded walk to plate another run and BunkyKateon delivered a run-scoring pinch-hit single to round out thescoring.
State freshman Aaron Weatherford replaced Dunn with one out and arunner on base in the eighth. The rookie right-hander ended the inningwith two strikeouts and, after giving up a one-out single in the ninth,ended the game with two more strikeouts.
Hunter went 3-for-5 with two RBI, extending his active RBI streak toseven games, while Jeff Butts collected a game-high three RBI on atwo-hit night. Berkery extended his hitting streak to 15 games with atwo-hit night.
The Bulldogs and the Tigers continue their SEC weekend series Saturdayat 1 p.m.
