LSU third baseman Clay Harris watched Winthrop southpaw Jeremy Plexico dominate the Tigers lineup Sunday afternoon with a fastball that painted the outside part of the plate over and over again, blanking LSU through 8 2/3 innings with only three hits.
So when Harris stepped up to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with the Eagles leading 2-0 and Aaron Hill on first base, he had a good guess as to what pitch was coming. And Harris guessed right.
After fouling off the first pitch, the sophomore from Slidell blasted Plexico’s outside fastball over the right-center field fence to tie the game 2-2.
Four batters later catcher Matt Liuzza was hit by a Kevin Slowey pitch with the bases loaded to bring for the winning run as No. 16 LSU (11-6) rallied for a 3-2 win to complete the three-game sweep over Winthrop (9-6) at Alex Box Stadium.
“It’s all just believing that you can come back,” Harris said. “In the eighth inning, I was sitting in the dugout watching the game, and I knew I was going to get a chance to get up in the ninth. I just wanted somebody to be on base.”
      Plexico, who took the loss, cruised into the ninth inning with a three-hitter and retired the first two batters before walking Hill to set the stage for Harris.
“Just didn’t have a pitch to hit, that’s how baseball is sometimes,” Hill said of his crucial, two-out walk. “That’s why you’ve got to be up four or five [runs] in the last inning to get the win. It wasn’t a pretty game, but our guys came through big.”
LSU batters came away from this game with a new respect for Winthrop’s baseball program and Plexico.
“You’ve got to give [Plexico] credit,” said Hill, who finished the series 5-for-10 with a home run, five runs scored and four RBIs. “He should have won this ballgame. But it’s baseball, sometimes it doesn’t go how you want it to.”
Following Harris’ first home run of the season, Ivan Naccarata — who extended his current hitting streak to 14 games during the weekend and went 5-for-9 in the series, including a rocket home run Saturday — ripped a double to right-center field and eventually scored the winning run.
Winthrop then intentionally walked pinch hitter Blake Gill and pinch hitter J.C. Holt walked to load the bases for Liuzza.
LSU coach Smoke Laval said he could have brought in regular catcher Dustin Weaver to hit for Liuzza, a freshman from Kenner but decided to leave him in the game.
“We had to find out if [Liuzza would] swing at a bad pitch or if he would stand up there and win the game,” Laval said. “Test number one passed.”
Although he was disappointed by the lack of offensive pressure for the game, Laval said the team’s refusal to quit even with two outs in the ninth was a big plus.
“At least now they know they can come back and win a ballgame,” Laval said. “No matter how you do it, where you do it, when you do it, they know now subconsciously that two or three runs can’t beat us.”
Left-hander Jason Determann (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings in relief of starter Jake Tompkins and picked up the win for LSU. Tompkins pitched seven strong innings with seven strikeouts.
Brian Wilson (3-2) pitched the Tigers to a 10-2 win in Friday night’s game while Bo Pettit (2-0) went six innings in an 11-1 victory Saturday.