By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Jesus now has Easter Sunday company rising from the dead.
Two of designated hitter Cade Arrambide’s four home runs on the afternoon ignited 11 LSU runs in the last two innings for a 16-6 win over Tennessee in 12 innings as the Tigers captured their second straight SEC series.
For LSU fifth-year head baseball coach Jay Johnson, it may have been greatest extra innings finish he never saw.
The Tigers were trailing Tennessee 5-4 in the top of the ninth inning with one out and one man on base when Arrambide recorded the second out by taking a questionably low third strike pitch.
Johnson was ejected for vehemently confronting plate Eric Goshay while Tennessee reliever Brandon Arvidson laughed about getting the benefit of Goshay’s call.
Maybe Johnson didn’t want to stick around for the final out and a painful SEC series loss for the Tigers. Instead, he missed 3 1/3 innings of an incredible LSU comeback. The Tigers got new life when Jake Brown delivered a two-out, game-tying RBI single following Johnson’s ejection.
“That win is definitely up there in my coaching career,” said Johnson, who was banished to the locker room after being tossed. “What a comeback. There were so many guys who made clutch plays. What a special performance by Cade Arrambide.”
His solo shot in the 11th, his third homer of the game, provided LSU a short-lived 6-5 edge. His grand slam with one out in the 12th gave him the LSU record for most homers in a game and tied him for the SEC single-game record with three other players.
“I knew this morning, I was feeling good (in) my batting practice,” Arrambide said. “I was in a zone.”
Sunday’s victory by the Tigers (22-11 overall, 6-6 SEC) was more evidence of LSU’s emerging “better late than never” personality. In the seventh inning and beyond in league play so far, the Tigers have blitzed their opponents 48-17.
Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Tennessee’s homefield, is known as a hitter-friendly ballpark because of its dimensions (320 feet down the left and right field foul lines, 390 feet to centerfield).
The Vols’ bandbox was very neighborly to the visiting Tigers. LSU had 13 homers in the three-game series (six in Friday’s Game 1, seven in Sunday’s Game 3), accounting for almost half of the Tigers’ 27 hits in their Knoxville stay.
Seven Tigers hit homers, 11 solo and grand slams by center fielder Derek Curial in Game 1 and Arrambide on Sunday.
Consecutive seventh-inning solo homers Sunday by John Pearson, Arrambide and Seth Dardar solo bomb shrank Tennessee’s lead to 5-4.
It eventually became the Vols’ (20-12, 4-8) third extra-innings SEC loss in their last six games.
“This one (game) should be a lot of expensive experience,” Tennessee first-year coach Josh Elander said. “It’s a reminder that the game can turn on a dime. If you don’t finish, teams will get you in this league.”
LSU’s 12th inning hitting clinic – 10 runs on seven hits including two homers and a triple – coupled with reliever Gavin Guidry’s best effort of the season, helped the Tigers take another step forward in the toughest college baseball conference in America.
“We had every opportunity to say, ‘Here we go again, things aren’t going our way, said Guidry, who allowed one run on two hits in the game’s last five innings. “Everybody in the dugout refused to say that.”
Here’s an LSU-UT series recap:
GAME 1: LSU 7, TENNESSEE 5 – The Tigers scored six runs on three homers in eighth and ninth innings to roar back from a 4-1 deficit on Friday night.
Dormant LSU bats erupted in a five-run eighth inning when Curiel’s grand slam homer for the second consecutive game was followed by a Dardar solo shot.
Chris Stanfield added another solo homer in the ninth.
GAME 2: TENNESSEE 4, LSU 1 – Tennessee freshman reliever Cam Appenzeller gave up a single to the first batter he faced and then retired 15 straight Tigers in five shutout innings to secure Saturday night’s win.
LSU starter William Schmidt and relievers Cooper Williams and Marcos Paz combined for a three-hitter, but it went to waste.
A two-run first-inning fielding error by LSU first baseman Zach Yorke and a two-out fourth inning passed ball by Arrambide setting up an RBI double by UT’s Jay Abernathy killed the Tigers’ victory hopes.
GAME 3: LSU 16, TENNESSEE 6 (12 innings) – The Tigers dug a 5-0 deficit on Sunday afternoon, all unearned runs thanks to three fielding errors on elementary baseball plays in the third inning.
Vols’ starting pitcher Evan Blanco was coasting for the most game – he gave Arrambide’s fifth-inning solo – until he was pulled with one out in the seventh after third baseman John Pearson homered.
Then, in a blink, after submarine-style reliever Brady Frederick replaced Blanco, the Tigers were on the doorstep of a comeback.
Frederick lasted just four pitches after Arrambidie rocketed his second solo homer followed by a Dardar solo bomb.
Three straight batters, three LSU homers, and Tennessee’s implosion had started.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com