The 14th-inning stretch must have worked for LSU sophomore third baseman Grant Dozar.Tied at 5-5 against Alabama in the bottom of the inning, Dozar lined a one-out fastball just over the right- field wall to give No. 6 LSU (30-6, 11-4) a 6-5, come-from-behind victory against Alabama (22-15, 5-10).The 14-inning marathon was the longest Southeastern Conference game for LSU since 1996, when the Tigers went to 16 innings against Florida. It was also the longest SEC game for Alabama since 1996, when the Crimson Tide went 16 innings against Tennessee in the SEC tournament.Dozar said it was his first walk-off home run in his life. For his efforts, he got a shaving cream pie in the face.”When I hit it, I didn’t think I had enough height on it,” Dozar said. “Thankfully, the ball carried enough to get out.”That home run wasn’t the only heroic act on Dozar’s résumé for the day. The sophomore also ripped a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 5-5.Alabama starter Jimmy Nelson had controlled the Tiger bats up to that point, as he finished with 8 1/3 innings pitched, giving up five runs (four earned) on nine hits with six strikeouts in 102 pitches.Crimson Tide reliever Nathan Kilcrease was able to ward off any further damage in the ninth inning, retiring the next two LSU batters with runners on first and second to send the game into extra innings.Kilcrease stifled the LSU bats until Dozar came up in the 14th.”I can’t say enough about the performance of their pitchers, Nelson and Kilcrease,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “They were just     fantastic, and they wouldn’t give our left-handed batters a pitch to hit on the inside part of the plate.”LSU starting sophomore southpaw Chris Matulis put together the most convincing starting pitching performance of the weekend for the Tigers, but it wasn’t always pretty.Matulis did his job for the most part in 6 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits while striking out three and walking three. He was relieved by Paul Bertuccini for one-third of an inning.Two of the runs came off a home run by Alabama first baseman Clay Jones in the top of the first. The only other run Matulis gave up came on a single in the top of the third and gave the Crimson Tide a 3-1 lead at the time.But Matulis ran himself into trouble in multiple innings, including leaving two on base in both the fourth and fifth innings. He was able to work himself out of the jams, and Alabama finished the game leaving nine on base while LSU left seven.”I did what I could to keep the game close,” Matulis said. “I just left that two-out pitch a little bit up on that home run.”Closer Matty Ott went the rest of the distance for the Tigers. He gave up the lead with the game tied at 5-3 in the eighth, but he settled down, giving up two runs on four hits while striking out three and walking one on 82 pitches in seven innings. The performance was by far his longest outing as a Tiger.Ott said Mainieri checked with him after every inning to see if his arm was OK. The problem wasn’t Ott’s arm. It was his whole body, Ott said.”We just pitched like I always do,” Ott said. “We didn’t know how long the game would last, so I didn’t save anything.”Friday and Saturday nights, the LSU home run bats came out in full force in front of two of the three  largest crowds this season. The Tigers went yard six times total in the two victories after not hitting a single home run in last weekend’s series loss to Auburn.On Saturday night in front of 10,019  — the largest crowd in LSU baseball history — LSU smacked three solo home runs in the span of four batters in the bottom of the second inning and held on late for a 9-7 victory.Friday night, the Tigers’ bats woke up thanks in large part to first baseman Blake Dean. The Tiger offense came alive after falling behind 4-1 in the second inning, and the senior had the fourth two-home run game of his career en route to LSU’s 12-5 win.”I started swinging at better pitches,” Dean said. “I didn’t work myself deep into counts to have to work from behind, and that helped me out a little bit.”Alabama leads LSU, 190-153-3, in a series that began in 1906. But the Tigers have a 29-10 overall mark against Alabama during the last 11 seasons (2000-10).
 
 
 
—-Conatct Andy Schwehm at [email protected]