June 7, 2003

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BATON ROUGE, La. - Back-to-back homers in the eighth propelled No. 7 LSU to a come-from-behind 6-5 win over No. 10 Baylor Saturday in game two of the NCAA Super Regional, staving off elimination for the Tigers and forcing game three Sunday.

Trailing 5-4 through seven innings, LSU's Clay Harris and Ivan Naccarata struck for back-to-back homers against Abe Woody and Ryan LaMotta (7-3), giving the Tigers (44-20-1) the lead for good.

The late-inning longballs overshadowed a comeback by the Bears (45-22), who had trailed 4-0 after just an inning and a half.

After the first two batters of game reached against Baylor starter Sean Walker, shortstop Aaron Hill gave LSU a 3-0 lead in the first inning with a three-run homer that just cleared the fence in right.

A double, a wild pitch and an RBI groundout produced LSU's fourth run in the second inning. Baylor got that run back in the bottom of the second, when Mark Saccomanno doubled, moved to third on a groundout and scored on an infield hit by Trey Webb.

The Bears pushed across two more single runs in the third and fourth innings to get within one at 4-3. In the third, Chris Durbin reached on an error and came home on a double by David Murphy, and Saccomanno led off the fourth with a triple and scored on a wild pitch.

Walker settled down after the first two innings and pitched six complete innings, leaving after the first two batters reached base in the seventh. Abe Woody took over and stranded both runners, getting a popped-up bunt, a called strikeout and a foul pop up to escape the inning.

Back-to-back singles by pinch-hitter Zach Dillon and Trey Webb to start the seventh sent LSU starter Bo Pettit to the showers. Reliever Jason Determann (7-0) struck out Kyle Reynolds trying to bunt and got Kevin Sevigny to fly out for the second out, but Durbin came through with an 0-2 single to center that plated Dillon with the tying run.

Murphy followed with a single to left that scored Webb and put the Bears on top 5-4. Josh Ford's deep fly to left center was caught for the third out, leaving runners on second and third.

After Harris' and Naccarata's back-to-back homers in the eighth, the Bears tried to answer in the bottom of the inning, putting runners on first and second with one out. Determann induced flyouts by Webb and pinch-hitter Jared Clements to leave both runners on base.

With one out in the ninth, Durbin launched a ball to the warning track in left-center, 400 feet from home plate but the deepest part of the park, and the shot was just a long out. Murphy's line shot back through the middle was speared by Determann in self defense to end the game.

Baylor and LSU will meet again Sunday at 1:35 p.m., with the winner going on to Omaha and the College World Series and the loser going home.

NOTES: Webb went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 11 games... Saccomanno's triple in the fourth was Baylor's 805th hit of the year, setting a new Big 12 record.