Sophomores Jared Mitchell and Blake Dean didn’t have their best performances Saturday against UC Irvine.
But in Sunday’s comeback victory, the duo made key plays to spark the Tigers.
One night after combining for one hit in 10 at-bats, Mitchell and Dean went 6-for-8 to make up for early mistakes and give LSU a 9-7 win.
Mitchell finished 3-for-4 with a solo home run in the top of the eighth inning to start the Tigers’ furious comeback and cut the Anteaters’ lead to 7-3.
“I got down to two strikes, and I told myself to try and stay inside the baseball and go the other way,” Mitchell said.  “I hit the ball hard, and luckily it carried out of the ballpark.”
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Mitchell made a diving catch into the left field wall to rob Anteaters’ freshman Tyler Hoechlin of an extra-base hit.
Earlier in the sixth inning, sophomore center fielder Leon Landry seemed to take the defensive spotlight yet again, making a diving catch that sent him rolling around in the outfield. But Mitchell stole the show with his catch in the ninth.
“Before the inning I went and talked to Leon and we said ‘Go all out right here,'” Mitchell said.  “The ball was hit hard … I [told myself] there was no way this ball was falling.”
Mitchell also started UC Irvine’s unraveling process by drawing a bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning to score.Dean started off slow again Sunday, flying out to right field in his first at-bat.
But in the ninth inning Dean came through with the game-tying RBI single, scoring Mitchell from second base.
“I knew that at some point in the game I had to have a big at-bat come around,” Dean said.  “I came up in a big situation where we had the momentum. We had the flow, and their pitcher seemed to be shaken a little bit.  He threw me a pitch I could handle, and I just hit it hard.”
Dean later scored on freshman shortstop DJ LeMahieu’s sacrifice fly, sliding under UC Irvine catcher Aaron Lowenstein’s tag to put LSU up 9-7.
“That was a big run for us to add on,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri.  “If we didn’t get that run after [Anteaters freshman infielder Ryan Fisher] hit a double in the infield, it would’ve been the tying run at the plate.”
Dean put the Tigers ahead earlier in the fourth inning.  He scored on junior Matt Clark’s double just under the right field scoreboard, which was dropped by Anteaters right fielder Sean Madigan.
LSU and UC Irvine play in a decisive game three Monday at 6 p.m. in the final game in Alex Box Stadium.
—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]