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Hanover's Ninth-Inning Double Lifts No. 13 LSU over Dartmouth
BATON ROUGE, La. - Third
baseman Tyler Hanover delivered a game-winning double in the bottom of
the ninth inning Sunday to propel No. 13 LSU to a 5-4 victory and a
three-game sweep over Dartmouth in Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers
extended their winning streak to five and completed a perfect 5-0 week.
LSU defeated Dartmouth 8-4 and 16-3 in the first two games of the
series over the weekend. Dartmouth, which opened its 2012 season on
Friday, fell to 0-3 with Sunday’s loss.
LSU returns to action on
Tuesday as the Tigers travel to New Orleans to take on instate rival
Tulane at 6:30 p.m. in Turchin Stadium.
The game was tied 4-4
in the bottom of the ninth inning when LSU shortstop Austin Nola
delivered a two-out single against Dartmouth reliever Thomas Olson
(0-1). Hanover followed with a fly ball into right-center field, where
Dartmouth centerfielder Jake Carlson, who was battling the sun, had the
ball carom off of his glove. Nola scored from first base on the play to
give the Tigers the victory.
“I’m glad that we has this type of
ball game today, a tight game where our players had to respond in
pressure situations,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I thought we
executed well at the plate and we made some critical pitches throughout
the day. Our run total doesn’t reflect it, but we had a lot of very
good at-bats with balls that were hit right at their fielders.”
Rightfielder
Raph Rhymes paced LSU with four hits and two RBI. Nola produced a
career-high four hits and scored the game-winning run.
Reliever
Chris Cotton (1-0) picked up the victory in relief after coming into
the game in the top of the eighth inning and recording four outs.
Starter Kurt McCune allowed two runs (two earned) on four hits, four
walks and struck out four in 4.2 innings.
Olson gave up two runs
(two earned) on four hits and two walks in 3.2 innings. LSU scored
three runs on Dartmouth starter Michael Johnson with seven hits in the
first four innings of the game.
LSU struck first in the bottom
of the opening frame. Second baseman JaCoby Jones reached base on a
single to left and reached second on a wild pitch before being caught
stealing at third. First baseman Mason Katz tattooed a two-out double
to right center.
Rhymes plated Katz on a hard hit single through the left side of the infield.
The
Tigers extended the lead in the bottom of the third inning. Jones
cracked a leadoff double into the left-center gap and moved to third on
Katz’s ground out to the right side. With the defense playing in,
Rhymes pushed a single up the middle for his second RBI single of the
contest.
Nola slapped a single into left center and Rhymes moved
to third. Hanover placed a perfect sacrifice bunt that allowed Rhymes
to score.
Dartmouth cut into the lead in the top of the fifth.
After a leadoff walk to Jeff Keller and a single to left by Nick
Lombardi, McCune struck out David Turnbull, but Matt Robinson knocked
an RBI single up the middle.
McCune forced Joe Sclafani to pop
out to center field, but second baseman Thomas Roulis placed a double
into right center, scoring Lombardi from second and moving Robinson to
third.
Right-hander Joe Broussard entered the game for LSU in
relief of McCune with two in scoring position and two outs. He struck
out Chris O’Dowd to minimize the damage.
Dartmouth knotted the
game at 3-3 in the top of the sixth. Keller reached base on a two-out
single and scored on Lombardi’s RBI single to left.
Dartmouth
captured the lead in the top of the seventh. Robinson led off the
inning with a single up the middle and moved to second on a wild pitch.
Sclafani’s groundout advanced Robinson to third.
Left-hander
Cody Glenn replaced Broussard, but Roulis greeted him with an RBI
single to right that plated Robinson. Roulis stole second and Dustin
Selzer was intentionally walked to set up a lefty-lefty matchup with DH
Ennis Coble. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring
position before Glenn forced Coble to ground out to end the threat.
Rhymes
dropped in a bloop double between the first baseman and right field to
start a rally for LSU in the seventh. Rhymes moved to third on a wild
pitch and Nola plated Rhymes on an infield single.
After
entering the game in the top of the eighth with two outs and allowing a
single, Cotton retired four straight, including all three in the top of
the ninth.
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