April 26, 2009
BATON ROUGE, La. - Casey McElroy delivered a perfect day at the plate, going 5-for-5 with five singles, and Brian Fletcher drove in three runs but for the second straight day, Auburn dropped a one-run game at No. 6 LSU, falling by identical 7-6 scores on Saturday and Sunday. The loss completed a sweep for LSU, which moved to 33-12, 14-7 Southeastern Conference, while Auburn fell to 25-19, 8-13 SEC.
"Losing three games at home or on the road is tough," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "We just didn't hit in the clutch and we had no situational hitting. We really struggled when we really needed a big hit and unfortunately that was the difference in the ballgame."
Bradley Hendrix (7-3) suffered his first loss since February 26 against Elon, allowing three runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings of relief of starter Dexter Price. Price, who was making his first career appearance in league play, allowed four runs on six hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.
"Dexter did a good job for us. He kept his composure, being on the road and in his first SEC start. I saw some real positives out there. He competed very well," Pawlowski said. "Casey has been pretty steady all year and he played some good defense here this weekend too. Those were some of the positives."
Matty Ott recorded the final four outs for LSU to earn his 10th save of the season, entering with the bases loaded and two out in the eighth and LSU ahead 7-4. He surrendered a two-run single to Fletcher in the eighth that allowed Auburn to slice the deficit to a run but then recorded a strikeout to end the eighth and then worked around a leadoff walk and a one-out hit batter in the ninth to nail down the save, inducing a game-ending double play out of Justin Hargett.
"We had the bases loaded a couple of times with some of the middle of the lineup guys up and we weren't able to manufacture even one run," Pawlowski said. "We had a couple of big strikeouts just when we didn't need them. When LSU needed to make a pitch, they made a pitch. When they needed to make a play, they made a play. They were certainly better than us this weekend."
Daniel Bradshaw (3-0) picked up the win in relief, entering in the fifth with two outs and the bases loaded. He walked Wes Gilmer for Auburn's fourth run of the game and then had to pitch out of trouble in the sixth before turning it over to the bullpen in the eighth following a hit batter and a walk. He was charged with two runs on three hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings.
LSU struck for a pair of second inning runs on a Buzzy Haydel RBI double and a Ryan Schimpf RBI fielder's choice with the bases loaded that Auburn was unable to turn two on.
Auburn evened the game at 2-2 as Hunter Morris drilled the first pitch he saw in the third inning to right for his second home run of the series and 12th of the year. McElroy collected his second hit of the day prior to the Morris blast, which extended Auburn's consecutive games with a home run streak to eight.
Auburn sent eight men to the plate, facing three different LSU pitchers, in the top of the fifth to go up 4-2. Trent Mummey and McElroy each singled off of LSU starter Austin Ross to knock the right hander out of the game after 4 1/3 innings. Paul Bertuccini entered and after striking out Morris walked Ben Jones to load the bases and then hit Fletcher to give Auburn the go-ahead run. Bradshaw then came in and issued the walk to Gilmer on eight pitches for Gilmer's third RBI of the weekend before getting Tony Caldwell to pop-out in foul territory to end the inning.
Ross was charged for four runs on six hits and three walks, striking out five.
Price threw into the fifth inning and left with Auburn up 4-2 and runners on first and second following a Jared Mitchell one-out single and a Blake Dean walk.
Hendrix was able to strikeout the first hitter he faced in DJ LeMahie, to record the second out of the fifth but then surrendered a three-run home run to Tyler Hanover, the second straight day that he has tagged a home run off the Auburn pitching staff. A pair of singles followed Hanover's blast, with Mickie Mahtook scoring on Micah Gibbs' single after stealing second, LSU's third stolen base of the inning, to go up 6-4.
Auburn threatened to get some runs back in the top of the sixth, loading the bases with one out on consecutive singles by Mummey, Hargett and McElroy, his fourth hit of the afternoon, but Bradshaw induced an infield fly pop-up out of Morris and a line-out to left out of Jones to keep it a two-run LSU advantage.
LSU used a two-out rally to extend its lead to 7-4 after six complete as Mitchell hustled into second for a two-out double, went to third on a Hendrix wild pitch and scored on LeMahieu's RBI single off of Scott Shuman, who had come in after a walk by Dean. Hendrix, who saw action in all three games in the series, was charged for a run on four hits and a walk, striking out two. For the series, Hendrix threw 3 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits while also allowing all three of the runners he inherited to score after allowing just six of 17 to score coming into the series.
Auburn got to within a run in the top of the eighth as Fletcher delivered a two-out, two-run single to right with the bases loaded. Mummey was hit by a Bradshaw pitch and then walked Hargett before being lifted in favor of Chad Jones, who was making his first career appearance on the mound. A safety on the LSU football team, he allowed McElroy's fifth single of the day to load the bases but then got Morris and Jones swinging before taking his seat in the dugout in favor of LSU closer Matt Ott. Ott surrendered the single to Fletcher on a 1-0 pitch but then struck out Gilmer on three pitches to end the inning.
McElroy's five-hit game was the first for Auburn since Joseph Sanders had five hits at Mercer on May 13, 2008.
Auburn returns home for four of its next five games, playing a home-and-home with Troy on Tuesday and Wednesday before playing host to No. 11 Ole Miss next weekend. Tuesday's game with Troy starts at 6pm CT at Plainsman Park while the 6pm Wednesday game will be played at Riddle-Pace Field at Troy. All tickets to Tuesday's home game are two dollars.
LSU 7, Auburn 6 (Apr 26, 2009 at Baton Rouge, LA)
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Auburn.............. 002 020 020 - 6 11 0 (25-19, 8-13 SEC)
LSU................. 020 041 000 - 7 11 0 (33-12, 14-7 SEC)
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Win-Daniel Bradshaw(3-0) Save-Matty Ott(10) Loss-Bradley Hendrix(7-3) T-3:16 A-9481
HR AU - Hunter Morris (12).
HR LSU - Tyler Hanover (4).
