BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 21 Mizzou baseball jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a three-run, first-inning homer from junior Josh Lester (Columbus, Ga.), but could not hold on as No. 1 LSU completed a 6-5, walk-off win on Sunday afternoon (May 10) at Alex Box Stadium. The loss drops the Tigers to 28-24 on the season and 14-13 in SEC play. Mizzou has lost just three SEC series all season, all three coming to teams that have been ranked No. 1 on the season at some point. All three series were on the road.
Mizzou jumped all over LSU starter Kyle Bauman in the first inning. Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.) drew a one-out walk in front of an infield single from Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.). Bauman then fell behind Lester, 2-1, and the junior made him pay with a three-run shot over the right centerfield fence, good for his team-leading seventh homer of the season. LSU immediately changed pitchers, bringing in freshman Austin Bain.
Mizzou starter Peter Fairbanks (St. Louis, Mo.) needed just 10 pitches to work around a two-out error in the first as he looked very sharp. He then put together 1-2-3 innings in the second and third, needing just 32 pitches to move the game through three innings. LSU finally got to Fairbanks in the fourth, tallying two runs on five hits and nearly got another run as Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) threw out the tying run at the plate for our No. 3.
A pair of walks came back to haunt Fairbanks in the fifth as LSU took the lead on RBI singles by Conner Hale and Kade Scivicque, both coming off of reliever Andrew Schwaab (St. Charles, Mo.) who took over for Fairbanks following the walks.
Howard tied the game in the sixth with a solo shot, his fifth homer of the year and second in as many games. LSU got the run back on a Chris Chinea homer to take a 5-4 lead into the seventh inning. Mizzou threatened in the frame, putting runners on first and second with two down, but Brett Peel (St. Charles, Mo.) struck out swinging to end the threat.
Mizzou got the leadoff man on in the eight on a Ring single, but he was erased on a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Howard. In the ninth, Lavy singled and took second on a fielding error by Danny Zardon, bring Shane Benes (Town & Country, Mo.) to the plate with the tying run in scoring position. Benes roped a double into left to score Lavy and tie the game.
Breckin Williams (Oronoro, Mo.) then worked around a two-out walk in the bottom of the ninth against the top of the LSU order. Mizzou had a golden opportunity in the 10th with a leadoff double by Peel and a single by Ring, putting runners on the corners with one out. Howard grounded out to short and Lester was intentionally walked to load the bases for Harris. But the freshman hit into a 5-3 double play to end the threat.
That gave LSU the momentum as it opened its half of the 10th with a pair of hits. Jake Fraley then singled in the winning run with runners on the corners.
Mizzou will be back in action Thursday in its final regular season series of 2015 against Kentucky. First pitch for that game will be at 6 p.m. from Taylor Stadium.
— MU Sports Information —