April 25, 2009
BATON ROUGE, La. - DJ LeMahieu delivered a two-out, walk-off single to center off of Auburn closer Austin Hubbard to lift No. 6 LSU to a 7-6 win on Saturday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium, extending Auburn's losing streak to a season-high four games.
"We had our chances but when it came down to little things, we had some opportunities to move guys over, we had a couple of bunt situations and a couple of routine plays. You have to make those plays against good teams and in this conference. We certainly didn't do that and we put ourselves in a tough spot and came up short today," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said.
Austin Hubbard (2-2) took the loss, allowing a run on four hits and two intentional walks in 1 1/3 innings, surrendering the game-tying run after entering for Bradley Hendrix with one on and none out in the eighth and then the game-winning run in the ninth.
Matt Ott (3-1) threw two scoreless innings to pick up the win in relief of Louis Coleman, entering with the bases loaded and none out in the eighth and not allowing a base runner, getting a pop-up and an inning-ending double play in the eighth before sitting the Auburn hitters down 1-2-3 in the ninth.
Dan Gamache and Ben Jones both finished the day 2-for-4 for Auburn with both hitting second-inning home runs. Gamache finished the game with a career-high three RBI in just his fifth career start.
Auburn (25-18, 8-12 SEC) scored three times in the top of the second on a pair of home runs as Jones blasted his eighth of the year to right-center to lead off the inning and Gamache sent his second home run of the season to center following a Tony Caldwell single. Gamache's home was the first home run with runners on base for Auburn in its last nine, dating to Casey McElroy's three-run shot at South Carolina a week ago.
LSU (32-12, 13-7 SEC) answered with a single run in the top of the second as Tyler Hanover led off with his third home run of the season, this one to left-center, cutting the Auburn lead to 3-1.
Auburn regained its three-run lead in the fourth as Gamache brought home Wes Gilmer from second with a two-out single back up the middle to put Auburn up, 4-1.
Three wind-aided fly balls turned into three extra-base hits and a pair of runs for LSU in the bottom of the fifth, slicing Auburn's lead to 4-3. Micah Gibbs started the rally with a triple to center and scored on Buzzy Haydel's sac fly. Austin Nola followed with a double to center that Trent Mummey could not chase down due to the wind before Mikie Mahtook sent one to right-center that hooked away from a diving Ben Jones for a triple, scoring Nola.
Between the Hanover home run and Gibbs' triple, Auburn starter Grant Dayton had retired 10 straight hitters, four by strikeout.
LSU took its first lead of the game in the bottom of the seventh as Jared Mitchell and Gibbs hit back-to-back home runs to knock Dayton out of the game after six-plus inning and Auburn down 5-4. Dayton surrendered eight hits in the outing without issuing a walk and struck out six.
"I thought Grant did a good job for us. He got us deep into the game, which he usually does. The wind was blowing out pretty good, he left a few balls up and they jumped on them and they hit a couple of home runs late," Pawlowski said.
Auburn strung together four straight hits to start off the eight and push two runs across the board, reclaiming the lead at 6-5 off of Coleman. Hunter Morris led off the inning with a single and went to second on Jones' double down the right field line. A Brian Fletcher's single up the middle took Dayton off the hook, scoring Morris from third and then a Gilmer bloop single to left put Auburn on top, 6-5, scoring Jones, and ending Coleman's day after seven-plus innings in which he allowed six runs on 10 hits and a walk, striking out six. Ott came in after Coleman and got a pop-up off the bat of Caldwell and then a double play out of Gamache to end the inning.
LSU tied the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth as it answered Auburn's four straight hits with three straight singles of its own. Blake Dean started the one-out rally with a single to center, ending Bradley Hendrix' day after 1 1/3 innings. LeMahieu greeted Hubbard with a single to left and then Hanover singled to right to load the bases. Hubbard was able to induce a chopper off the bat of Mitchell to Justin Hargett at second but he was unable to field it cleanly, allowing Dean to score the game-tying run, though he did throw out Mitchell at first for the inning's second out. After an intentional walk to Gibbs reloaded the bases, Haydel flew out to Jones in right to send it to the ninth tied at six.
Auburn, which now has 91 home runs, has now hit at least one home run in seven straight games, the third time this season Auburn has homered in at least seven consecutive games.
Auburn will try to salvage the final game at 1pm CT on Sunday against LSU So. RHP Austin Ross (4-5, 4.62 ERA). Auburn has not yet announced its starter.
LSU 7, Auburn 6 (Apr 25, 2009 at Baton Rouge, LA)
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Auburn.............. 030 100 020 - 6 10 0 (25-18, 8-12 SEC)
LSU................. 010 020 211 - 7 13 1 (32-12, 13-7 SEC)
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Win-Matty Ott(3-1) Loss-Austin Hubbard(2-2) T-2:37 A-9509
HR AU - Ben Jones (8); Dan Gamache (2).
HR LSU - Tyler Hanover (3); Jared Mitchell (8); Micah Gibbs (6).
