BATON ROUGE SUPER REGIONAL:

BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU gave new meaning to the term Zot, Zot, Zot, as the host Tigers popped back-to-back-to-back home runs in the first inning on their way to a commanding 21-7 win in the third and deciding baseball game of the NCAA Super Regional Monday at Alex Box Stadium.

The damage was so seismic and sudden, it left UCI players and fans offended. Senior catcher Aaron Lowenstein took offense to some celebrating near home plate by LSU players awaiting Matt Clark’s third straight free ride around the bases.

Even the Anteaters fans in the stands needed security to intervene between them and some of the local rooters, who were obviously thrilled to see their team (48-17-1) punch its ticket to Omaha and the College World Series. The five-time national champion Tigers have reached Omaha 14 times in the last 23 seasons.

It was 9-1 Tigers after three innings, leaving UCI supporters among the stadium record crowd of 8,173, as well as those watching and listening, enough time to consider this team’s strong postseason showing.

There was, however, plenty of fight in the No. 8-ranked Anteaters (42-18), who also had plenty left in their bat rack.

But No. 5-ranked LSU, playing its final game in the 70-year-old stadium that housed the Gorilla Ball years of the 1980s, when some of the home run totals produced by the Tigers helped usher in new restrictions on aluminum bats, still had enough to win by two touchdowns.

“We would simply say congratulations to an outstanding LSU ballclub,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “I think they demonstrated why they got on the roll they got on [a 23-game winning streak entering the Super Regional that was snapped by UCI’s 11-5 win in Saturday’s opener]. And they really had a great night. They put a world-class beating on us.”

It was ugly from the start, and it was more muscle than Mojo, or Mojeaux as the locals might prefer.

After UCI was retired in order in the top of the first, UCI sophomore starter Bryce Stowell never found a groove. Stowell walked the leadoff man on four pitches and Jared Mitchell followed with a single.

Blake Dean then pulled a three-run homer well over the wall in right field for his fourth dinger of the postseason and his 20th of the year.

Micah Gibbs then launched a homer over the wall in left and Matt Clark did the same, his fourth of the postseason and 26th of the campaign, to put the already fired up crowd into a frenzy.

Stowell, the MVP of the Lincoln Regional for his part in the 8-0 championship game win over Oral Roberts at Nebraska, retired two the next four batters. But a single by No. 9 hitter Ryan Schimpf brought pitching coach Ted Silva to the mound and Stowell was done.

“They ran that five up there in the first inning and literally took our starter out of the game,” Gillespie said. “If we were going to be able to contend tonight, we were going to have to have Bryce Stowell take us deep into the game.”

UCI senior catcher Aaron Lowenstein said Stowell was getting behind and missing up in the strike zone.

“And when you have a good hitting team like [LSU], that was just kind of a diagnosis for bad news.”

The news got worse, before it got better, and then it got worse.

LSU scored seven in the fifth and the Tigers, who will meet North Carolina in the College World Series opener Sunday night, bashed the last two of their seven homers in the seventh and eighth innings.

LSU had 24 hits in 49 at-bats against seven UCI pitchers, including six doubles and the aforementioned homers.

The 21 runs were the most allowed this season by a UCI pitching staff that came into the Super Regionals with the nation’s second lowest earned-run average (2.88). UCI, in fact, had given up no more than 18 runs in back-to-back games all season.

Dean finished five for five with three RBIs. Schimpf was four for five with two homers, two doubles and five RBIs.

Noel Avison was the only UCI pitcher to not allow a run, working a scoreless seventh.

UCI, which managed single runs in the third and fifth, showed some spark in the seventh, when Dillon Bell led off with a booming home run that drew appreciative applause from the home fans.

Ollie Linton doubled and stole his 40th base of the season, a school record, while Ryan Fisher also tripled in the inning, in which Ben Orloff drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Lowenstein, in his final game of a distinguished career, drove in two runs with sacrifice flies.

Junior third baseman Eric Deragisch homered in the third, while Bell (two), sophomore first baseman Jeff Cusick and Brock Bardeen all doubled for UCI.

Bell, a sophomore outfielder who came off the bench, finished three for three with two RBIs to lead UCI’s 13-hit attack.

Deragisch was two for three.

Sophomore outfielder Sean Madigan also tripled for UCI, which had won nine straight in regional and super regional play over the last two seasons — all on the road — until LSU rallied with five in the ninth for a 9-7 win Sunday to even the series.

“I’m proud of my team because we never gave up,” said Lowenstein, who is off to professional baseball after being drafted Friday by the San Francisco Giants. “We kept pushing and punching back. I’m very happy with my guys and the fact that we didn’t give up, which is what this team is all about.”

Gillespie also expressed pride in this season and believes UCI, which reached the College World Series in 2007, will be a force to be reckoned with the near future.

“We won 42 games,” Gillespie said. “We won a regional. In spite of this final score tonight, I think everybody recognizes that we played these guys to a standstill for two full days, so I think we have much to be proud of, and we are and we should be.

“UC Irvine is a place that has demonstrated that it can do well and it should do well and it will do well.”

NCAA Super Regional

Game 3

LSU 21, UC Irvine 7

SCORE BY INNINGS

Stowell, Bergman (1), Calahan (5), Slaught (5), Avison (6), Dufour (7), Necke (8) and Lowenstein; Martin, Brown (5), Byrd (7), Ross (8), Ranaudo (9) and Gibbs, Ochinki (8). 2B – Linton (UCI), Cusick (UCI), Bardeen (UCI), Bell (UCI) 2, Dean (LSU) 2, Gibbs (LSU) 2, Schimpf (LSU) 2. 3B – Deragisch (UCI), Fisher (UCI), Madigan (UCI). HR – Dean (LSU), Gibbs (LSU), Clark (LSU), Haydel (LSU), Dishon (LSU), Schimpf (LSU), 2, Deragisch (UCI), Bell (UCI).

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.