LSU junior shortstop Kramer Robertson will acknowledge it – Saturday’s loss to No. 6 Vanderbilt is a tough one to swallow, even if he feels LSU played “extremely well” throughout the series.
Despite taking a series from the Commodores (25-7, 7-5 SEC) for the first time under Paul Mainieri, the No. 15 Tigers (21-10, 6-6 Southeastern Conference) were four outs away from sweeping Vanderbilt for the first time since 1997.
Yet, as right-fielder Jeren Kendall’s three-run home run landed in the right-field bleachers in the eighth inning, the Commodores broke LSU’s broomsticks with one swing during a three-hour and 45-minute affair.
“We’ll take some solace after we take a few minutes to think about it and feel good that we won the series this weekend,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “We’re back to even in the league, but for right now, I just feeling like it was a lost opportunity.”
Entering with a six-out save opportunity, freshman right-handed closer Caleb Gilbert surrendered Kendall’s game-winning shot, as Vanderbilt snuck out of Alex Box Stadium with a 9-7 victory.
Gilbert, who has now allowed eight earned runs off 11 hits over his last three appearances, was able to record the first two outs of his 1.2-inning outing. But, with the bases cleared and shortstop Connor Kaiser due up, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin called on pinch hitter Ro Coleman, who was a pregame scratch due an illness.
Coleman drove a single through the right side before another single from Commodore second baseman Tyler Campbell, the nine-hole hitter. Those two base knocks setup Kendall’s three-run shot over the right-field wall. The home run, the fourth of the series for the Commodores, was all Vanderbilt would need to salvage a victory in Baton Rouge.
“It’s one of those thing that I talked to these kids about,” said pitching coach Alan Dunn. “‘If a team is going to beat you, they got to beat you by putting the ball in play. You can’t give them anything, and [Gilbert] didn’t give them anything. You give [Kendall] credit. He almost one handed that ball.”
In a back-and-forth contest, senior lefty John Valek III experienced his shortest and one of his most rocky outing of the season, giving up four runs off seven hits in just four innings on the hill.
Similarly to sophomore right-hander Alex Lange’s start Friday night, the Commodores scratched a run off Valek in the top of the first, arriving in a thunderous way.
Center fielder Bryan Reynolds, who moved from the No. 3 to No. 2 spot in the Vanderbilt order Saturday, crushed Valek 1-1 offering off the scoreboard in left field. The solo shot gave the Commodores a 1-0 lead, but Valek escape with no further damage done.
However, Valek never quite settled in after the one-run first inning. Although the Akron transfer stranded a leadoff walk in the second with a lineout and back-to-back strikeouts, Vanderbilt sandwiched two singles around a walk to start the third.
With the bases loaded, third baseman Will Toffey drove in right fielder Jeren Kendall with a single through the left side.
“[Valek] made some pitches that found some holes,” Dunn said. “Was he as sharp as he’s been? Probably not. He has to pitch to edges of the plate and stay down. I think a couple of ball he probably got up, and they had good swings on him. It wasn’t probably his best command of his stuff, and the margin for error is very, very minimal in this league.”
But the LSU offense clawed back in the bottom of third, taking a 3-2 lead off four hits against Vandebilt starter Hayden Stone. Three straight singles to lead off the frame, capped off by sophomore first baseman Greg Deichmann’s RBI single through the right side put the Tigers on the board for the first time.
Two batters later, Robertson roped a two-run double down the left-field line, but left fielder Beau Jordan was robbed of an RBI on Campbell’s inning-ending diving catch.
The Tigers’ three-run inning chased Stone from the game, but Valek would run into more trouble of his own, cutting his day short.
A one-out walk and two singles pushed the the tying-run across. Then, Reynolds delivered an RBI sacrifice fly, giving the Commodores a 4-3 lead, but Kendall was caught in a rundown and was tagged out to end the frame.
“John wasn’t real sharp today,” Mainieri said. “He’s going to give up some hits, and he gave up a few hits. That wasn’t the concern of mine. The concern of mine was when walked the shortstop who was playing for the first time, and he walked on four pitches. That tells me…his command wasn’t there. That’s when I thought maybe it wasn’t going to be a very long outing for him.”
LSU went down in order in the fourth, but exploded for four runs in the fifth, sending nine men to the plate. Vanderbilt right-handed reliever Matt Ruppenthal, who entered the game with 1.71 ERA and 31 strikeouts on the year, replaced John Kilichoswki after the Tigers put runners on the corners with two singles and a sacrifice fly.
Ruppenthal, though, couldn’t find the strike zone, plating freshman right fielder Antoine Duplantis on a wild pitch and then conceding consecutive four-pitch walks. With the bases loaded, Jordan smoked a two-run single into left field off new reliever Collin Snider.
Freshman third baseman Chris Reid legged out an infield single on the next at-bat, setting up sophomore catcher Michael Papierski’s RBI sacrifice fly to right field.
But the LSU offense was held in check from there, as Commodore reliever Patrick Raby and closer Ben Bowden blanked the Tigers over the final four innings. The Vanderbilt offense, though, wouldn’t be denied.
“I don’t think we did,” Robertson said when asked if LSU let up offensively after regaining the lead. “We still got baserunners and we hit a lot balls really hard with two outs…I think we played really well throughout the entire game. It was really well-played game by both teams. They made a lot clutch plays, as did we. The ball just bounced their way today.”
After two “beautiful” innings by sophomore reliever Doug Norman, Mainieri said, Campbell and Kendall each singled. Mainieri then went to junior right-hander Parker Bugg, who couldn’t escape unscathed.
Reynolds then launched a double off the top of the right-field wall, inches away from tying the game at that point, and catcher Jason Delay provided an RBI sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to one.
“Bugg sometimes has trouble with left handers, and they had a lot of left handers in their lineup. Unfortunately, guys got a couple of hits there off Norman, and before you know it, I’m bringing in Bugg to face Reynolds, and he almost hit a three-run homer himself.”
After Kendall’s homer in the eigth, LSU had one final opportunity with runners of the corners in the bottom of the ninth. Deichmann ripped a one-out double down the right-field line. Robertson, who had two hits and reached the basepaths in all five appearances, then singled into left field. But Kendall hauled in Jordan’s lazy fly ball to end the the contest.