Tigers turn off Hogs’ power switch, win SEC title 4-2
HOOVER, Ala. — With the Southeastern Conference baseball championship on the line, LSU coach Paul Mainieri paid the league’s hottest hitter the ultimate compliment Sunday.
Mainieri ordered an intentional walk to Chad Spanberger that loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning and the Tigers leading Arkansas by two runs.
Putting the winning run on base violates baseball’s proverbial “book” of managing but in Spanberger’s case resulted from a phenomenal display of power hitting. The junior first baseman set an SEC-tournament record with three home runs against Auburn in an elimination game Thursday night and hit two more in a 16-0 semifinal rout of Florida on Saturday.
“I thought he was in scoring position standing at home plate,” Mainieri said after LSU’s 4-2 victory Sunday. “I did something there (walking Spanberger) that I hadn’t done in 35 years of coaching.”
Although yielding a ninth-inning run, LSU reliever Hunter Newman got his coach off the hook. Luke Bonfield, another hot hitter for Arkansas at Hoover, grounded into a fielder’s choice that retired Eric Cole at third base. That secured the Tigers’ record 12th SEC tournament championship and gave LSU (44-17) the league’s automatic seed in the NCAA tournament, for which regional pairings will be announced today.
Arkansas (42-18), although denied its first SEC tournament title, is expected to host a regional next weekend at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas scored first on right fielder Cole’s solo homer in the third, his sixth of the year. LSU countered with three runs in the fourth, chasing Razorback freshman starter Kevin Kopps, and added a run in the sixth.
Cole singled home a run with two out in the Arkansas ninth
after catcher Grant Koch walked and pinch batter Evan Lee was hit by a pitch. Mainieri then walked Spanberger intentionally for the second time, moving Lee to third and Cole to second.
Newman, who earned the save in a 10-8 LSU victory at Fayetteville April 8 after the Tigers scored five in the ninth, preserved the title clincher for starter Eric Walker. Walker allowed five hits and struck out eight before pulled with two outs in the eighth. He shut out the Razorbacks on four hits April 9 in a 2-0 victory at Baum Stadium.
“He pitched an unbelievable game,” Mainieri said, “maybe better than the one he pitched in Fayetteville, with all that was going on today.
“He’s got the talent and the ability, but also something psychological, and they were all on display today,” the LSU coach said.
Arkansas missed a scoring chance in the second inning, Carson Shaddy with a groundrule double to left and Jax Biggers reaching as the LSU right fielder dropped a fly ball. Walker bore down and struck out Koch and got Jared Gates to line out to center.
When the Tigers pitched to him, Spanberger grounded to third, struck out and flied to left.
LSU right fielder Greg Deichmann, who like Spanberger has 19 home runs on the season, managed only a second-inning single, then was caught stealing. LSU left fielder Antoine Duplantis, batting ahead of Deichmann in the No. 3 spot, had two hits, a double included, and scored twice.
A fourth-inning single by Duplantis loaded the bases and brought on lefty Matt Cronin in relief of Keyes, making only his fourth start. Cronin struck out left handed-hitting Deichmann but Cannon Chadwick, Arkansas’ third pitcher of the inning, walked Nick Coomes to score the tying run. Josh Smith singled home the go-ahead run, and the Tigers made it 3-1 on a sacrifice fly.