BATON ROUGE, La. ? Blake Gill?s two-run double in the bottom of the seventh was the difference as No. 8 LSU scored a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over Kentucky on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 23-21 and 5-16 in the Southeastern Conference. It was the 10th straight loss for the team on Friday night in SEC play and the 11th loss in which the Wildcats have held a lead but failed to close the game out. LSU won its eighth league game in its last nine tries as it improved to 32-15 and 13-9 in the conference, good enough to tie for first place in the SEC Western Division.
Game two of the series is Saturday at 3 p.m. ET and can be heard in the Lexington area on WLXO 96.1-FM as well as online at www.UKathletics.com. Kentucky will send junior lefty Aaron Tennyson (5-1, 4.32) to the mound against LSU sophomore lefty Clay Dirks (9-1, 2.92). Each pitcher is his team?s respective leader in victories and the Wildcats are 4-0 in conference play when Tennyson.
Gill came up in the seventh with runners on first and second and nobody out of a 4-4 game. He initially tried to bunt the runners over but fouled off two pitches and was forced to swing away. He turned on the offering from Craig Snipp and pulled the ball down the first-base line, just out of the reach of a diving Michael Bertram.
Michael Hollander, who drew a lead off walk, and Chris Jackson, who beat out his sacrifice bunt attempt for a single, scored on the play.
The rally allowed LSU starter Lane Mestepay, who ranks second in school history in victories, to register his first win since March 18 and improve to 6-6 on the year. He went seven innings and gave up five runs ? three earned ? on seven hits while walking four and striking out two. Jason Determann worked two perfect innings to close the game and earn his fifth save.
Kentucky took advantage of Mestepay?s control problems early for a 4-0 lead after three innings. In the first, J.B. Schmidt led off with a four-pitch walk and Antone DeJesus reached when Gill couldn?t hold onto a throw at first on a bunt. Two outs later, Michael Bertram knocked a single ? the first of his three hits ? to score both runners.
In the second, Billy Grace and J.P. Lowen were walked to lead off. Ryan Wilkes laid down the Wildcats third sac bunt of the game before a Schmidt groundout scored Grace.
Shaun Lehmann, John Shelby and Bertram connected for three straight singles in the third to load the bases with nobody out. Lehmann trotted home for the Wildcats fourth run as Collin Cowgill grounded into a double-play to kill Kentucky?s chances of a big inning.
With a comfortable lead in hand, Kalen Gibson cruised through the first five innings. He retired the first 11 batters he faced and didn?t allow a hit until the fifth. The hit came on a controversial scoring decision as the ball deflected off Schmidt?s glove at third base.
In the sixth, a one-out error by Schmidt opened the floodgates as the Tigers tied the game with four runs. After getting the second out, Gibson plunked Ryan Patterson to put two on for Nick Stavinoha, who belted a two-strike three-run home run to left-center field.
Gibson responded by hitting the next batter he saw, Clay Harris. After a single by Jordan Mayer, Kentucky looked to be out of the inning as Quinn Stewart grounded to short. However, Ryan Wilkes booted the ball and everyone was safe.
Harris made a big turn at second and Wilkes tried to catch him off the bag, only to throw the ball into right field allowing the tying run to score.
After falling behind, Kentucky managed just one base runner in the final two innings. Michael Bertram led off the eighth with a triple to right field to chase Mestepay. He later scored on a ground out by Cowgill.
Gibson earned a no-decision while Snipp took the loss to fall to 3-4 on the year. Gibson worked the first 5 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on three hits while walking one and fanning four. Snipp hurled the final 2 1/3 innings and gave up the two runs on a pair of hits.
