Southern Miss made LSU coach Paul Maineiri nervous in the top of the fifth inning Sunday.
The Golden Eagles cut LSU’s lead to 3-2 with a run in the fourth and fifth innings and had runners at the corners after a pair of two-out hits.
“I wasn’t feeling great about the game about four or five innings into it,” Maineiri said. “It just wasn’t coming to us.”
But that’s exactly when LSU began to take control.
After the Golden Eagles’ second two-out hit, Maineiri pulled junior starting pitcher Blake Martin in favor of reliever Paul Bertuccini.
The sophomore immediately stopped the bleeding, striking out Southern Miss senior left fielder Drew Carson to end the inning.
“I just wanted to get out of the inning and have a comfortable lead and be able to build on that lead,” Bertuccini said.
Southern Miss junior starting pitcher Brian Leach held the game to 3-2 through the end of the fifth inning, but LSU put things away with a nearly perfect sixth inning.
Bertuccini picked up where he left off in the top of the fifth inning and struck out all three batters he faced in the top of the sixth.
And the LSU offense similarly took care of its business in the bottom of the inning.
Freshman catcher Micah Gibbs led off the inning with a walk, and junior right fielder Derek Helenihi was hit by a pitch while attempting to bunt.
LSU junior first baseman Matt Clark followed with an RBI-double down the left field line, and Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer decided it was time for a new pitcher.
Palmer called for reliever Collin Cargill. At first it seemed as though the move had paid off and Southern Miss would escape the sixth inning trailing by only two runs, 4-2.
Cargill forced LSU freshman shortstop DJ LaMahieu and sophomore center fielder Leon Landry into outs and was one out away from getting out of the inning. Cargill then walked sophomore second baseman Ryan Schimpf to load the bases for the top of the LSU batting order.
The Schimpf walk marked the third LSU base runner of the inning who reached base without a hit.
“It’s tough,” Palmer said. “LSU’s got a fine club, but we just didn’t give ourselves a chance because we walked too many people.”
LSU senior third baseman Michael Hollander took advantage of the situation with a two-RBI single through the middle of the infield.
“I was just trying to hit it up the middle like I did,” Hollander said. “He was a good pitcher with a lot of movement on his stuff. I was just looking for something up, and I was trying to hit it hard on the ground.”
The single forced Palmer to call for yet another pitcher, junior Tyler Conn. But Conn had no more success than his predecessor.
Conn hit LSU sophomore left fielder Jared Mitchell with the first pitch he threw to load the bases for sophomore designated hitter Blake Dean, who had already hit three home runs in the regional.
Dean responded with a three-RBI triple to center field, extending LSU’s lead to 9-2 and wrapping up the regional’s Most Outstanding Player Award.
“When Blake Dean hit that ball, that was one of my favorite moments in the history of my coaching career,” Maineiri said. “To hear this crowd erupt the way that it did, it was deafening.”
LSU and Southern Miss would each go on to score two more runs en route to LSU’s 11-4 victory, clinching the Tigers a super regional date with California-Irvine.
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]