BATON ROUGE, La. ? LSU capitalized on three Kentucky errors and built an early lead en route to an 8-3 victory to clinch the series on Sunday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
The loss dropped the Wildcats to 24-22 overall and 6-17 in the Southeastern Conference. With the win, the Tigers won their fourth straight series and improved to 33-16 overall, including 14-10 in league play.
Chris Jackson gave LSU the lead in the second with a two-out, two-run single that barely found its way between a pair of diving Kentucky infielders on the right side. Billy Grace fielded the ball and attempted to gun down Matt Liuzza at third, but his throw ended up in the bleachers and Liuzza was awarded home for a 3-0 Tiger lead.
?Jackson?s hit was huge,? Kentucky head coach John Cohen said. ?If we could find a way just to keep that ball in the infield we would have been in a totally different situation.?
Kentucky rallied with a pair of runs in the fourth on three straight hits from Antone DeJesus, Shaun Lehmann and John Shelby. DeJesus came in on Shelby?s single and Lehmann scored when the throw home from left fielder Quinn Stewart ended up at the backstop. With the potential for a big inning, two Kentucky batters struck out looking sandwiched around a Collin Cowgill fly out.
With its lead cut to 3-2, LSU answered with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth. Grace dropped a fly ball in right field to allow Liuzza to reach to start the inning. An out later, Kentucky starter Andrew Albers allowed a walk and then struck out Ryan Patterson.
Albers seemed to be out of the inning when he induced Nick Stavinoha into a pop fly to first, but the wind played havoc with it and Michael Bertram couldn?t corral it, allowing Liuzza to score. Clay Harris then singled to plate Chris Jackson for a 5-2 lead.
?We didn?t communicate or attack the ball on the popup and our right fielder just dropped a ball that was in his glove,? Cohen said. ?If we make those plays, it?s a completely different ball game.?
LSU added another run in the sixth on Michael Hollander?s sacrifice fly.
Kentucky looked to rally in the seventh as Cowgill singled to lead off, went to second on a Grace walk and scored on Ryan Wilkes two-out RBI single. However, with runners on the corners, J.B. Schmidt went down looking.
LSU answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the seventh off reliever Scott Green for the final margin. Greg Smith got the win after working 6 2/3 innings and allowing three runs ? two earned ? on six hits. He fanned seven while walking just two. Jason Determann earned his second save of the series by hurling the final 2 1/3 innings and allowing a single hit while striking out four.
?Smith did a great job. His change up is a very good pitch and his breaking ball is good,? Cohen said. ?He was aggressive with his fastball early and he did a great job today.?
Albers took the loss to drop to 4-5 this year. He lasted five innings and was tagged for six runs ? only three earned ? on eight hits.
Kentucky returns to action on Tuesday night when it faces in-state rival Eastern Kentucky at Cliff Hagan Stadium. First pitch of the game is set for 6:30 p.m.
