Instead of going straight to his bullpen in the bottom of the eighth on Sunday, LSU coach Paul Mainieri brought out southpaw senior Ryan Byrd to warm up to begin what would have been his eighth inning of work.
Mainieri then came out after a few warm up pitches to pull Byrd so the Tiger faithful could applaud the senior for his seven-inning, two-run, five-hit and three-strikeout pitching performance to lead the Tigers to their second consecutive Southeastern Conference tournament championship.
The No. 1 Tigers defeated No. 8 Vanderbilt, 6-2, behind Byrd’s performance to become the first team since Alabama in 2002 and 2003 to win back-to-back SEC tournament titles. It is also the first back-to-back titles for LSU since 1992-1994, when the Tigers won three straight.
The victory was LSU’s fifth straight after dropping their first game in the tournament, 4-1, to Vanderbilt.LSU senior Buzzy Haydel came on to pitch two scoreless innings in relief to close the game for the Tigers, giving up only one hit.
“We just took it one game at a time,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said in a postgame TV interview. “Our kids handled all the pressure with great poise.”
In a matchup that put the past two SEC tournament champions against one another, LSU took the early lead off Vanderbilt right-hander Nick Christiani. LSU sophomore left fielder Leon Landry got his fourth hit of the tournament to lead off the game, a double down the left field line. Landry later scored on a groundout by LSU junior designated hitter Blake Dean to put the Tigers up, 1-0.
Christiani went four innings and gave up three runs on four hits while striking out two.
Byrd looked good early, getting a pair of three-up, three-down innings in the second and third.
The Tigers got another run in the fourth inning on a single by LSU freshman center fielder Mikie Mahtook to score sophomore catcher Micah Gibbs.
LSU took a 3-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by sophomore second baseman DJ LeMahieu to score Mahtook, who had stolen second and moved to third on an infield single earlier in the inning.
The Commodores got on the board in the fourth inning on a home run by right fielder Steven Liddle, his 10th of the season, to cut the score to 3-1.
LSU answered on Landry’s second double of the game to score freshman shortstop Austin Nola from first base with no outs in the fifth.
Landry moved over to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly by Dean.
Dean got his third RBI of the day in the seventh inning on another sacrifice fly to score Nola and put LSU up, 6-1. 
 
EXTRA BASES:
Four LSU players were named to the SEC All-Tournament Team:
RHP Daniel Bradshaw
SS Austin Nola
DH Blake Dean
CF Mikie Mahtook
Mahtook was also named the MVP of the tournament.
The Tigers will host a regional starting Friday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. against a team to be announced at 11:30 a.m. Monday during an NCAA Selection Show on ESPN.—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]