After a 16-inning marathon victory for the No. 3 LSU baseball team that ended at midnight Sunday morning, LSU and Alabama continued with the extra-inning trend in a 4-3 Crimson Tide win in Sunday’s series finale.
The Tigers (37-4, 15-3 Southeastern Conference) took the first game of the series while riding sophomore starter Aaron Nola as the right-hander tossed a complete-game shutout and struck out 10 Crimson Tide (24-18, 9-9 SEC) batters. The case was different Saturday, as Alabama overcame a three-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings in Tuscaloosa.
What resulted was a five-hour, 16-inning contest that finally concluded in an 11-8 win for the Tigers. When both squads arrived back at the stadium Sunday, they began play only 13 hours after the previous game ended.
It was only fitting that both squads would play into extra innings again.
With LSU trailing 3-2 in the top of the ninth, senior first baseman Mason Katz laced a leadoff single, then junior third baseman Christian Ibarra slammed a double over Alabama sophomore right fielder Ben Moore’s head. LSU sophomore outfielder Chris Sciambra then came through in the clutch, hitting a sacrifice fly to tie the game at three.
The game only lasted into the 10th, though, as Alabama loaded the bases with two outs for Crimson Tide freshman second baseman Kyle Overstreet to knock a game-winning single to center field and allow Alabama to avoid the sweep.
Earlier this week, LSU coach Paul Mainieri acknowledged he wasn’t certain if sophomore starter Cody Glenn (5-1) would be able to make Sunday’s start after Glenn took a line drive off his leg in last Sunday’s series finale against Arkansas and was forced to leave the game.
The sophomore southpaw responded by tossing eight innings of three-run baseball with only one run earned, surrendering four hits while striking out four.
“We basically gave them all of the runs they got,” Mainieri said. “It was really a shame, too, because Cody Glenn pitched a tremendous game. He pitched his heart out and deserved a better fate than that. We didn’t do the things that we have been doing all year from a fundamentals standpoint.”
The Tigers’ defense committed three errors Sunday, leading to two unearned runs for the Tide. LSU’s fielders had only 26 errors prior to the series finale.
“It was very uncharacteristic of us today because our defense really let us down,” Mainieri said.
Senior reliever Joey Bourgeois (2-1) took the mound for the Tigers in the ninth and 10th innings. The right-hander tossed a scoreless ninth inning but wasn’t able to escape trouble in the bottom of the 10th, eventually picking up his first loss of the season.
Offensively, Ibarra carried the load for the Tigers on Sunday, going 3-for-4 with a run scored. The third baseman also played a prominent role in Saturday’s marathon victory, going 3-for-6 with two runs scored. Overall, Ibarra batted for a .500 average in the series.
Sciambra and junior catcher Ty Ross both had RBIs in Sunday’s contest, capping off a productive weekend for the Tigers’ catcher. Ross had two hits in Saturday’s 11-8 victory, including a three-run bomb over the left field wall in the top of the fourth inning.
