May 6, 2006
AUBURN, Ala. -
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Matt Liuzza's solo home run to lead off the top of the sixth inning snapped a 3-3 tie and carried the No. 28 LSU Baseball team to a 5-3 victory over Auburn on Saturday night at Plainsman Park. The loss dropped Auburn (22-27, 9-14 SEC) into a tie with Tennessee for 10th in the conference standings, two games behind eighth-place Mississippi State (11-12 SEC).
"I thought both sides did a nice job. We came out in the first inning and put up a couple of runs and after that, (LSU starter Louis) Coleman settled in and they put up a couple of runs on Evan (Crawford), and then he settled in," AU Head Coach Tom Slater said. "Both starting pitchers did a good job and both bullpens did a good job for both clubs."
Auburn took a 2-0 lead on a two-out RBI single by Russell Dixon in the top of the first only to see the Bayou Bengals get one of those runs back in the third on an error on the Auburn defense.
LSU (31-17, 10-13 SEC) then took the lead at 3-2 with a pair of runs on Jordan Mayer's RBI double in the top of the third, but this time AU rallied to knot the score with Mike Bianucci's RBI double scoring a hustling Luke Greinke from first.
The two teams stayed deadlocked until Liuzza took Crawford's second pitch of the sixth and lined it over the green monster in left.
LSU tacked on an unearned run in the ninth for the final margin.
Coleman (5-3) earned the win for LSU, surrendering three runs on six hits.
Will Harris earned his second save of the year with 3.0 innings of one-hit ball.
Crawford took the loss for Auburn to fall to 5-6 on the year as he allowed four runs on six hits in 6.0 innings.
Tyler Johnstone, Bianucci and Dixon all finished with two hits for Auburn.
Johnny Thompson pitched the final three innings for Auburn, allowing an unearned run on two hits and two walks.
Auburn will try to salvage the final game of the series on Sunday, sending junior righty Chris Dennis (3-4) to the hill to face former AU Tiger Daniel Forrer (1-2). First pitch is set for 1:07 p.m. CT and the game will be carried live on CSS.
Saturday's game will be aired on CSS on Monday, May 8, at 6 p.m. CT.