LSU rally evens Super Regional

BATON ROUGE, La. — The UC Irvine baseball team had the place they call “The Box” in the ground, as well as its occupants, the LSU Tigers, with three outs remaining in what could have been the clinching game of the NCAA Super Regional.

But the No. 8-ranked Anteaters, specifically normally reliable relievers Tom Calahan and Eric Pettis, the latter an All-American with a school single-season record 17 saves, couldn’t shovel dirt on the tenacious Tigers.

The result was a ninth-inning comeback to rival any the 70-year-old facility — in its last season — has had, helping LSU (47-17-1) claim a 9-7 win to extend the best-of-three series.

The deciding third game, from which the winner will advance to the College World Series, is scheduled today at 4 p.m.

UCI sophomore Bryce Stowell (8-2 with a 2.77 earned-run average), the MVP at the Lincoln Regional last week after helping blank Oral Roberts in the championship game, will face LSU starter Blake Martin.

Martin, a junior lefty, is 5-3 with a 4.88 ERA.

“That was one for the ages,” LSU Coach Paul Mainieri said after No. 5-ranked LSU, which has now come from behind to win 29 times, scored two in the eight inning and five in the ninth to live to play another day.

UCI had been 37-0 when leading after seven innings and 39-0 when leading after eight this season before Sunday.

“It’s just a tremendously courageous game for us,” Mainieri said. “I know it’s a tough loss for Irvine. I feel for [the Anteaters]. But we’re not quite ready to say goodbye to Alex Box Stadium yet.”

Neither were most of the 6,971 on hand, who helped generate energy after the Anteaters (42-17), the designated home team Sunday, scored six runs in the fourth to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 7-2 lead.

UCI sophomore left-hander Danny Bibona, with the aid of some impressive defensive execution, limited LSU to two runs on eight hits through seven innings.

“It was one more in a full string of well-pitched games by Danny,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “I was really proud of the way our guys skilled it up and executed. We did a lot of good things. But, in the end [LSU] did what a good hitting club does when you get those kinds of opportunities.

With UCI seemingly in control, Jared Mitchell greeted Bibona with a leadoff home run in the eighth. A two-out walk by Calahan allowed Matt Clark to single in another run and trim the deficit to 7-4.

In the LSU eighth, with the fans roaring uncontrollably for yet another rally, the Tigers did not disappoint.

“I can honestly tell you everybody in that dugout believes in what we’re doing and there’s not going to be any quit in anybody,” Mainieri said of his players, including eventual heroes Blake Dean and Louis Coleman.

“We’re never going to quit,” Dean said. “We’ll never stop fighting. We’re never going to give up, no matter if we’ve got two outs, two strikes, in the bottom of the ninth, down eight runs. We still think we can do it from there. I think that’s the biggest key for us. We keep believing and keep pushing and keep fighting.”

Added Coleman, who earned the victory with three shutout innings of one-hit relief and is now 7-0: “We have a saying in our locker room: ‘Refuse to lose,’ ” Coleman said. “Everybody believes in each other, one through nine.”

The Tigers sent 10 hitters to the plate in the ninth, which began with a walk and a double against Pettis, who entered in the eighth without a save situation in place.

Pettis, one of five finalists for the national Stopper of the Year award, was victimized by an infield single to short to load the bases in the ninth, then walked Mitchell to force in a run and make it 7-5.

A grounder to third plated another run and Dean, the Tigers’ best hitter who was one for eight in the series to that point, followed with a single through the right side that tied the score.

Sean Ochinko followed with a single that drove in another run and the final run of the inning scored on DJ LeMahieu’s sacrifice fly to left.

Five runs, all earned, were charged to Pettis, who had not given up more than two in any of his previous 30 appearances. In fact, Pettis had allowed just eight earned runs in 43 2/3 innings all season (a 1.65 earned-run average) prior to Sunday.

“[Pettis] He didn’t have his stuff,” UCI catcher Aaron Lowenstein said. “Every day, he has been unreal for us this year. But he was a little out in front [in his delivery], leaving some pitches up, and they punished his mistakes. He fell behind in the count and they really took advantage of it.”

UCI gained the advantage in the fourth, when it batted around against LSU starter Jared Bradford.

After Brock Bardeen opened with an opposite-field homer, his second in two days and his sixth of the season. Tony Asaro was hit by a pitch and advanced on Sean Madigan’s sacrifice bunt.

Casey Stevenson’s infield single, his 10th hit in 15 postseason at-bats to that point, put runners on the corners. Eric Deragisch dropped down a successful safety squeeze bunt, reaching first as Asaro beat the throw to the plate from the pitcher.

UCI senior catcher Aaron Lowenstein, who picked a runner off first and third to help Bibona, singled in two and advanced to second on the throw to the plate.

Ollie Linton and Ben Orloff each followed with RBI singles. After a single by Jeff Cusick, however, Schimpf, made a backhand stab of a hard-hit one-hopper off the bat of Bardeen to start an inning-ending double play.

That was the last heard from the UCI offense, allowing the potent LSU offense to stay within range.

“Nobody feels comfortable with six outs still left,” Gillespie said of a five-run edge entering the eighth. “It’s the metal bat, it’s this ballpark, it’s that [LSU] offense, I certainly thought we were in good shape, but we had not begun to count [the victory].

“Hats off to LSU for taking advantage of the opportunities it got the last couple innings … As we all know, [the Tigers] can really swing it, and when they got their chances, they did it.”

Mainieri hopes his team can do it one more time.

“It will be a sad day, win or lose tomorrow, to say goodbye to this stadium,” Mainieri said. “We’ve been trying to say goodbye to her for a few weeks now, it’s just that she won’t go away.”

BOX SCORE

NCAA Super Regional

Game 2

LSU 9, UC Irvine 7

Score by Innings

LSU.........010 100 025 – 9 14 0

UCI..........001 600 000 – 7 11 0

Bradford, Coleman (7) and Gibbs, Ochinko (8); Bibona, Calahan (8), Pettis (8), Bergmann (9) and Lowenstein. W – Coleman, 7-0. L – Pettis, 4-3. 2B – Cusick (UCI), Clark (LSU), Schimpf (LSU), Fisher (UCI). HR – Bardeen (UCI), Mitchell (LSU).