The LSU baseball team overcame a tough weekend series against the top-rated pitching staff in the Southeastern Conference and maintained first place in the top-heavy SEC with a 6-1 win Sunday against Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss.
The 19th-ranked Bulldogs (33-13-1, 14-9 SEC) stifled the Tigers’ bats in the first two games, winning 4-2 and 5-0 respectively.
Paul Maholm, a potential first-round draft pick, allowed two runs Friday in 7 2/3 innings and registered a season-high 10 strikeouts. The lefty improved his record to 7-2 and his ERA to 2.23.
Alan Johnson (5-2, 3.70 ERA) pitched a complete-game shut out Saturday, allowing only four hits and clinching the series for the Bulldogs.
No. 6 LSU (32-16-1, 16-7-1 SEC) came back strong in Sunday’s game behind the pitching of Nate Bumstead and the hitting of shortstop Aaron Hill.
Bumstead recorded his seventh-straight win and barely missed a complete game, pitching 8 2/3 innings while improving his record to 8-1.
Outfielder Ryan Patterson and Hill blew the game open in the third inning with back-to-back home runs, giving the Tigers a 4-0 advantage.
Hill continued hitting well throughout the game and finished 3-for-5 with two doubles and a home run. Patterson leads the team with 11 homers on the season.
The Tigers’ leading hitter, Clay Harris, struggled throughout the weekend, going 1-for-12. His lone hit was an RBI-double in the fifth inning Sunday scoring Hill.
Second baseman Blake Gill added a double Sunday and finished the game 2-for-5.
The series win for the Bulldogs marked their first SEC series win since sweeping Ole Miss in the final weekend of March.
LSU lost its second SEC series of the season and its second-straight road series loss. The Tigers lost two of three to Vanderbilt two weeks ago in Nashville, Tenn.
The gap the Tigers held in the race for the SEC crown narrowed this weekend.
Heading into the weekend, LSU held a 2 1/2 game-lead on Auburn and a three-game lead on Mississippi State. Both numbers decreased by one this weekend as Auburn beat Florida two out of three games.
Auburn and LSU will battle it out for SEC supremacy this weekend when the orange and blue Tigers enter Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge for a three-game series.
State traveled to Athens, Ga. this weekend for a three-game dog fight with the Georgia Bulldogs who are in second-to-last place in the SEC.
LSU scheduled a game Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. against Loyola. LSU added this game to its schedule after its game with Southern was rained out earlier this year.