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COLLEGE BASEBALL : Home run in 11th inning sends LSU past Arkansas Published: Saturday, March 22, 2008 PRINT E-MAIL BATON ROUGE, La. — Matt Gaudet ended Friday’s marathon game between Arkansas and LSU with one big sweeping swing of the bat. Gaudet hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 11 th inning to give LSU an 8-7 victory over Arkansas before 3, 847 at Alex Box Stadium. The home run was one of three for LSU (13-6, 1-3 ), which has won consecutive games after losing five in a row. Casey Coon broke out of his slump for Arkansas (13-7, 1-3 ) with four hits, including a double and a two-run home run. The Razorbacks had an opportunity to take the lead in the 10 th inning when Coon hit a double and moved to third on an infield single by Tim Smalling. But the Tigers got out of the inning when Daniel Bradshaw got Jacob House to ground into a double play.
Ben Tschepikow stretched a bloop hit into a double in the 11 th, but he was doubled off on a line drive by Brett Eibner to end the inning. “We’ve got a young team that’s learning a bit, and we couldn’t get that big hit late,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “Both teams had chances and they finally ended it by hitting it out of the park.” Jared Bradford (4-1 ) earned the victory with three scoreless innings of relief while Stephen Richards (1-1 ) took the loss for Arkansas. The teams combined to use nine pitchers in a game that featured 15 runs and 22 hits. Bradford allowed three hits and struck out two with no walks. “What can you say about Jared Bradford ?” LSU Coach Paul Mainieri said. “He’s such a money pitcher for us and we have so much confidence in him. Not only does he have good stuff, he has great poise.” Arkansas battled back from a three-run deficit to take a 7-6 lead with two runs in the seventh inning. But LSU tied it when Sean Ochinko hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh. Blake Dean also hit a home run for the Tigers, who led 6-3 after three innings. LSU’s Leon Landry robbed Arkansas of at least a couple of runs with back-to-back standout plays in center field. Coon had just cut the LSU lead to 5-3 with an RBI single when Aaron Murphree lifted a shallow fly ball to center with two runners on base. Landry made a diving catch to end the inning, then ran down Tim Smalling’s drive against the wall to begin the fourth inning. D. J. LeMahieu also made up for an earlier error by going behind second base and taking a hit away from Ryan Cisterna in the eighth. LSU fell behind 2-0 before retaliating quickly with four runs in the bottom of the first against Arkansas starter Cliff Springston, who made his third start. Springston settled down after 1 LSU’s initial surge and pitched 5 / 3 innings before freshman Kendall Korbal took over. LSU used five pitchers in the sixth inning when Arkansas scored twice to get within 6-5. Smalling had the key hit with an RBI double to extend his hitting streak to 13 consecutive games. The Razorbacks still had runners on first and third when Bradshaw retired pinch hitter Tschepikow on a bouncer to the mound to end the inning. Eibner led off the seventh inning for Arkansas with a double and Murphree put the Razorbacks ahead with a two-out RBI single. Arkansas scored the tying run on an error by LeMahieu, who threw poorly past field base after fielding a hard grounder by Coon. Yesterday's Most Popular 1. HOG FUTURES JERRY MITCHELL : Hurricane brings Mitchell to Hogs 2. THE RECRUITING GUY : Purifoy's size fits into UA's plans 3. Iowa prep standout Kelly joins UA track 4. Former Diamond Hog Richards inks contract with Marlins Today's Most E-mailed |
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