By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – No matter where his college baseball career path has taken him, from New York’s Columbia University to Kansas State and finally to LSU, Mandeville native Seth Dardar has forgotten he was raised a Tigers’ baseball fan.
So, when one of his dreams came true Sunday’s SEC series finale vs. Kentucky in Alex Box Stadium, perhaps he could be excused for drawing a stern warning from plate umpire Seth Buckminster for flipping a bat high in the air after hitting a lead-taking homer.
“I grew up watching LSU my entire life, so it means a lot to me being in the stadium with all those fans,” said Dardar, a transfer redsshirt senior second baseman whose two-out, three-run sixth inning blast accelerated 11 Tigers’ runs in their last four innings in a 17-10 victory over No. 19 Wildcats 21-5, overall 5-4 SEC) for LSU’s (19-10, 4-5 SEC) first league series win of the season. “When I was running around third and going home, hearing the crowd cheer just meant the world to me.”
Dardar, who hit .326 for K-State last season and decided he would likely quit baseball if LSU didn’t acquire him from the transfer portal, hit .600 in the UK series (6-for-10 with a homer, four doubles, five RBI, four runs scored, and three walks).
“I’m proud of him,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said of Dardar, who improved his season batting average to .275 and who has a team-high 10 doubles. “He’s actually taken some pretty good at-bats in some clutch situations and hasn’t gotten rewarded for it.
“I had a good conversation with him after the game yesterday (Saturday), and I’m just really proud of probably the weekend that he put together. He’s had the toughness to stick through it.”
At least for this series, so did the Tigers.
Johnson headed into this past weekend forced to shuffle his starting pitching rotation. Usual Game 2 starter Cooper Moore is sidelined with triceps soreness in his throwing arm.
Game 3 starter William Schmidt took Moore’s Game 2 spot. He and reliever Zac Cowan blanked the Wildcats 7-0 on Saturday afternoon.
It was a much-needed win after Friday starter Casan Evans imploded early in a 7-4 LSU loss in the series opener. He allowed four runs in the first two innings, putting the Tigers in an immediate hole.
Four of his six walks, three of his four hits allowed, both of the two batters he hit and his lone wild pitch came in the first three innings.
The loss put LSU in a position of having to win Saturday’s and Sunday’s games to get a badly-needed series victory after the Tigers dropped their first two SEC series at Vanderbilt and home vs. Oklahoma.
After LSU evened the series with its Saturday shutout of the Wildcats, Johnson hoped he could piecemeal a pitching lineup because LSU had no clear, definitive Game 3 starter the equal of Schmidt.
Redshirt junior reliever Gavin Guidry again got rocked in Sunday’s emergency starting role. In 1.1 innings, he allowed six runs on three hits, walked four, and had a wild pitch. Eight of the 12 batters he faced reached base.
UK built a 7-0 lead through 2½ innings before the Tigers dug in their heels.
“We’ve gone down a lot in certain games this year, and we kind of laid down,” LSU sophomore centerfielder Derek Curiel said. “We’re sick and tired of it. The coaches decided, and the players made a decision that that’s not going to happen anymore.”
Keyed by John Pearson’s two-out grand slam, LSU’s six runs in the bottom of the third cut UK’s lead to 7-6. The Wildcats pushed their cushion back to 10-6 in the top of the fifth, but they wouldn’t score again.
Ten of LSU’s runs on the day were scored with two outs.
For the series, the Tigers batted .320 (32 for 100), including their 16 for 38 third-game barrage. Thirteen pitchers – three starters and 10 relievers (two of which pitched twice) combined for a 5.33 ERA.
“If you don’t throw punches back,” Johnson said, “I’m not talking about scoring runs, I’m talking about having your manhood challenged and (don’t) respond, you’re going to lose. We haven’t responded that way, and we’ve lost., Today (Sunday), you can’t ask for a better response beginning.”
LSU hosts Southern on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before traveling to Knoxville for a three-game SEC series vs. Tennessee (18-10, 3-6 SEC) on Friday, starting at 4:30 p.m CDT.
The Vols were swept at Vanderbilt this past weekend, losing 3-2 in 10 innings in Game 1, 6-5 in 16 innings in Game 2, and 16-15 in Sunday’s finale after Vandy scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Here’s an LSU-UK series recap:
GAME 1: KENTUCKY 7, LSU 4 – Kentucky right-hander Jaxon Jelkin (6-0) limited the Tigers to two runs on five hits in 8 innings on Friday night. He had seven strikeouts and one walk in 114 pitches.
GAME 2: LSU 7, KENTUCKY 0 –Tigers’ starting pitcher William Schmidt (4-1) worked 5.1 scoreless innings on Saturday afternoon, limiting the Wildcats to six hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Freshman designated hitter Mason Braun was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer and a run-scoring double, tying his career high with four RBI.
GAME 3: LSU 17, KENTUCKY 10 – The Tigers cracked 16 hits, including three homers and three doubles, in Sunday afternoon’s finale. Left fielder Chris Stanfield, the Tigers’ lead-off hitter, was 4-for-5 with one double, one RBI, and two runs.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com