Looking for an opening series sweep of Central Florida, the second-ranked LSU baseball team blew two leads on Sunday and fell to the Golden Knights in 10 innings 6-5 at Jay Bergman Field in Orlando, Fla.
The Tigers (2-1), who beat UCF 4-3 in 10 innings Friday and hit five home runs in a 17-4 rout Saturday, jumped out to a 3-0 lead and also held a 5-3 advantage, before the Golden Knights (3-2) rallied both times.
With the score 5-5 and the bases full of UCF players in the ninth inning, LSU reliever Jordan Faircloth was able to work out of the jam to send the game to extra innings. He was not so lucky in the 10th.
Faircloth (0-1) walked David Mann to open the inning, and he promptly stole second base and moved to third on a groundout.
With runners at first and third and one out, Faircloth coaxed a potential double-play ground ball from outfielder Dee Brown, but Tigers first baseman Clay Harris overthrew shortstop Matt Horwath for an error and Mann scored the winning run for the Golden Knights.
The Tigers seemed to be in control for a sweep with a 3-0 lead and freshman left-hander Clay Dirks cruising.
LSU scored a run in the first on a RBI-single from Blake Gill and tacked on two more in the fourth on a 2-run double from catcher Matt Liuzza.
Dirks took a 3-0 lead into the sixth but gave up back-to-back doubles and a walk and was relieved by Nate Bumstead, who was cleared to pitch despite a shoulder injury.
Bumstead struggled early, balking in one run and wild pitching another run in to make it 3-3.
Gill, who went 3-for-5, answered with an RBI-triple in the seventh and scored on an RBI-single from Nick Stavinoha for a 5-3 LSU lead.
But in the bottom half, Bumstead surrendered a two-run home run to Drake Wade to tie the score 5-5. Bumstead went on to pitch a scoreless eighth and pitched into the ninth inning before being relieved by Faircloth. Dirks went 5 2/3 innings and gave up three runs with five strikeouts and three walks.
LSU got seven home runs on the weekend from seven different players.
Horwath, Harris, Ryan Patterson, Bobby DiLiberto and Derek Hebert each homered Saturday, and Lane Mestepey won in his first start since the 2002 season. Mestepey (1-0) pitched five innings and gave up five hits and one run.
The Tigers roped 19 hits Saturday in the rout of the Golden Knights.
Jason Determann (1-0) picked up the win in relief Friday with four innings pitched and one earned run. The Tigers won that game in the 10th on an RBI-double from Harris. Harris had five RBIs on the weekend. Stavinoha and Jon Zeringue each hit home runs for LSU in the season opener.