A disaster of aneighth inning for LSU both at the plate and in the field made allthe difference Friday as Baylor stunned LSU 4-1 in the first gameof the Super Regional at Alex Box Stadium.
           ”Allin all, it was a pretty good played baseball game on bothsides,” said Baylor coach Steve Smith. “I was proud ofour guys that they didn’t cave in.”
           Onemore Bears (45-21) win will propel Baylor into the College WorldSeries and end the Tigers (43-20-1) season.
           Baylorstarting pitcher Steven White (9-4) outdueled LSU pitcher NateBumstead (11-3), pitching eight innings and notching ninestrikeouts to earn the win.
           ”Tipyour hat to him,” said LSU shortstop Aaron Hill, who struckout twice. “I don’t know if we took it for granted orwhatever. They beat us.”
Both teams scoreda run in the sixth inning and carried a 1-1 score going into thetop of the eighth when everything unraveled for Bumstead and theTigers.
           Baylorsecond baseman Kyle Reynolds led off the inning with a single andleft fielder Kevin Sevigny sacrificed him to second with abunt.
           Centerfielder Chris Durbin then broke the tie with an RBI single, scoringReynolds, and he scored after hits from right fielder David Murphyand an RBI single from catcher Josh Ford for a 3-1 lead. Durbin ledBaylor at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance, two runs scored,two RBIs and a pair of stolen bases. Mark Saccambo’s doublelater scored Ford for the 4-1 lead.
           Bumsteadfinished with eight innings pitched and four earned runs on ninehits.
           LSUlooked to rally in the bottom half with two outs, and seemed to bethreatening after consecutive Baylor errors, including a droppedpop fly by Reynolds. But White struck out Jon Zeringue for hisninth strikeout on the night to end the threat.
           LSUstruck out ten times on the night, including seven by called thirdstrikes. The Tigers left 12 men on base.
           LSUcoach Smoke Laval said the amount of strikeouts by Tigers batterswere frustrating.
           ”Wehad our chances,” Laval said. “A base hit here or therewould have kept the offensive pressure on. We hit some hard balls.It just didn’t work out.”
           TheTigers got men on first and second with no one out in the ninth butfailed to get any runs. Ryan LaMotta picked up his third save ofthe season for the Bears.
“It was agood ballgame there,” Laval said. “They got the timelyhits and their guy went 140 pitches strong and was still throwingpretty strong late in the ballgame. Nate threw a gem of agame.”