BATON ROUGE, La. – Vanderbilt rallied to edge LSU 5-4 in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium to clinch the series and climb above .500 for the first time this season.
LSU (39-13, 17-10) broke up a tied game in the bottom of the eighth, scoring a run to take a 4-3 lead into the ninth inning. The Tigers handed the ball over to closer Nick Goody, who had allowed just two runs in 27 outings with opponents hitting just .151. Mike Yastrzemski immediately greeted Goody with a solo home run into the right field bleachers to tie the game at 4-4. Will Clinard worked a perfect bottom of the ninth to send the Commodores (26-25, 13-14) to their third extra innings game of the season.
In the top of the 10th, the Dores put together a rally starting with Connor Harrell’s triple to the right-center field gap. A bunt single from pinch hitter Andrew Harris put runners on the corners. Jack Lupo’s attempted squeeze bunt failed as Harrell was thrown out at the plate for the second out of the inning. With runners on first and second Tony Kemp bailed out the Commodores with a single up the middle to score Harris from second base. Clinard then worked another 1-2-3 inning to notch his sixth win of the season.
Vandy jumped out to an early lead, pushing two runs across in the second inning. A sacrifice fly from Vince Conde scored the first run with Jack Lupo’s single capping the rally. The Tigers answered back in the third to tie the game with two runs and took the lead in the fourth on Aaron Nola’s two-out, RBI-single. Anthony Gomez brought the game back to even in the fifth when he drove in Yastrzemski, who led off the inning with a double.
Lupo led the way for Vanderbilt with three hits and a career-best three stolen bases. With three stolen bases Lupo became the first Commodore since Jason Esposito against LSU in 2010 to swipe three bags in a game. Harrell chipped in two hits and Yastrzemski doubled and added his fifth homer of the season. Nola paced the Tigers with two hits and two RBI. Kevin Ziomek turned in 3.2 solid innings in relief allowing one unearned run on one hit with four strikeouts.
The win marks the Commodores’ second straight series win on the road after last weekend’s series victory at Tennessee. The series victory is the fifth straight for Vandy over LSU.
Vanderbilt returns home to host Ole Miss beginning Thursday night. The Commodores and Rebels will be featured on ESPNU’s national broadcast with first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m.
