SEC TOURNAMENT

Bulldogs knock out Tigers in 10th

Mississippi State’s Matthew Britton (center) is swarmed by teammates after he drove in the game-winning run on a single up the middle as the Bulldogs eliminated LSU with a 4-3 victory Friday at the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala.
Mississippi State’s Matthew Britton (center) is swarmed by teammates after he drove in the game-winning run on a single up the middle as the Bulldogs eliminated LSU with a 4-3 victory Friday at the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala.

— Matthew Britton’s single up the middle brought home the winning run in Mississippi State’s 4-3, 10-inning victory over top-seeded LSU Friday in the SEC Tournament.

LSU second baseman JaCoby Jones made a diving stab for the ball but couldn’t come up with it. Britton was hitting .149 coming in, but wound up getting swarmed by teammates who get to face Kentucky Saturday for a berth in the championship game.

“When I saw [Jones] dive, my stomach kind of dropped because I thought he got it,” Britton said. “I just kept running until I saw that the ball got past him. I felt pretty happy about it.”

Mitch Slauter drove a one out double to the center field wall for the Bulldogs (37-22), who had rallied with two runs in the ninth and one in the eighth.

Reliever Nick Rumbelow came in to face Britton, who entered as a pinch-runner in the ninth and scored the tying run off the Tigers (43-16).

He grew up in Cullman, Ala., about an hour away from Regions Park and frequently attended SEC tournaments.

“I always dreamed about playing,” Britton said. “When I got the opportunity, it was a big deal to me.”

Wes Rea opened the ninth with a double down the right field line off LSU closer Nick Goody that was just inside the foul line and out of reach of a diving Mason Katz, starting the rally.

“A big game that you seemingly have in hand, and then you can’t hold the lead in the ninth inning,” LSU Coach Paul Mainieri said. “For a long time we were very fortunate to be shutting them out.

“We made some tremendous defensive plays.”

Daryl Norris and Adam Frazier both singled and Luis Pollorena, who pinch-ran in the eighth, drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to center.

Pollorena has only three at bats this season.

Goody got Hunter Renfroe to pop up to send it to extra innings.

Jonathan Holder (2-0), who hasn’t allowed a run in 22 appearances this season, pitched around an error for a scoreless top of the 10th. Holder ran his streak of scoreless innings to 26 1/3 to break Bobby Reed’s school record.

FLORIDA 7, SOUTH CAROLINA 2

HOOVER, Ala. - Brian Johnson pitched a five-hitter and Mike Zunino hit a two-run home run to lead Florida to a victory over South Carolina on Friday night, eliminating the two-time defending national champions from the SEC Tournament.

The Gators (42-17) face Vanderbilt today for a shot at the championship. The Gamecocks (40-17) went 1-2 at Regions Park.

Johnson (7-4) pitched his first career complete game. He struck out five, didn’t walk anybody and coasted through on 89 pitches. He also had an RBI on a bases loaded walk in the fifth.

Casey Turgeon added a two-run single in the three-run fifth to make it 7-0.

Zunino had an RBI ground out in the first and then hit his league-leading 16th home run in the third.

At a glance At Regions Park, Hoover, Ala.

TUESDAY’S GAMES Mississippi State 9, Arkansas 1 Kentucky 2, Ole Miss 0 Florida 6, Auburn 1 Vanderbilt 4, Georgia 1

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES Ole Miss 2, Arkansas 0 Mississippi State 3, LSU 2 Auburn 3, Georgia 2 Vanderbilt 3, South Carolina 2

THURSDAY’S GAMES LSU 11, Ole Miss 2 Kentucky 5, Mississippi State 1 South Carolina 5, Auburn 3 Vanderbilt 2, Florida 1

FRIDAY’S GAMES Mississippi State 4, LSU 3 Florida 7, South Carolina 2

TODAY’S GAMES Kentucky vs. Mississippi State, noon Vanderbilt vs. Florida, TBD

Sports, Pages 25 on 05/26/2012

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