It wouldn’t be a weekend at the Box without some craziness. And that’s exactly what happened on Sunday night with LSU getting all of its runs in the first inning and holding on to take down Rice 4-2 to advance to the final round of the regional.
The Tigers had a fairly unusual play in the bottom of the fourth when Greg Deichmann hit a ball down the right field line with the bases loaded that wound up in the bench by the bullpen. The Owls right fielder went over to get the ball and it led to an inside the park grand slam. However, the umpire at first ruled it was a ground-rule double, but after a conference between the crew and Paul Mainieri, the call was changed to make it 4-0 in favor of the Tigers.
Rice got on the board in the top of the fifth inning with Grayson Lewis hitting a solo shot to left field. The Owls would continue to try and get closer to LSU in the top of the sixth with an double to left center field by Ford Proctor, but that was all that the Tigers were going to allow.
Alex Lange improved to 8-3 on the year, allowing two runs off of five hits, walked two and struck out 10 batters in eight innings of work. Hunter Newman got his seventh save of the year with one inning of work where he allowed one hit.
The Tigers will now advance to the finals to take on the winner of Rice and Southeastern with first pitch scheduled for 7 pm.
-Clint Domingue