Andrew Vinson pitched the final 2.1 innings for Texas A&M for his third save of the year.
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Third-ranked Texas A&M tallied five two-out RBI on Saturday afternoon to register a 6-2 win against the No. 1 LSU Tigers at Alex Box Stadium, staving off the series sweep.
The Tigers pounded out five hits in the first two innings, but had three runners wiped out on the base paths, including runners gunned down at home to end both frames. In first inning, leftfielder Logan Taylor threw a perfect strike to Michael Barash at the plate to retire Alex Bregman on a single by Kade Scivicque. In the second, Taylor hit cut-off man Blake Allemandm who delivered the package to Barash who tagged Chris Chinea trying to score from first on a Jared Foster double.
Texas A&M took advantage of an LSU error to draw first blood in the top of the third inning. With one out, Barash grounded to shortstop, but the throw was dropped by first baseman Chris Chinea for an error. Allemand drew a five-pitch walk and Nick Banks swung and missed on a full-count offering for the second out of the inning. Mitchell Nau singled off the glove of third baseman Conner Hale to fill the bags with Ags. Logan Taylor punched a 2-0 pitch into rightfield, breaking the scoring seal with a two-run single. Hunter Melton and Ronnie Gideon followed with RBI singles to stake the Aggies to a 4-0 lead.
LSU trimmed a pair of runs off the lead in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Andrew Stevenson doubled down the rightfield line. After Chinea grounded out to short for the second out of the inning, Chris Sciambra singled to rightfield to plate Stevenson and moved to second on the relay throw. Aggie starter Kyle Simonds appeared to get out of the inning without further damage as he induced a fly ball to shallow centerfield, but JB Moss was unable to hold on to the ball, allowing to Sciambra to score on the error, cutting the A&M lead to 4-2.
Ryne Birk added an insurance run in the sixth. With two outs, he launched a 1-0 pitch over the rightfield wall for his fourth home run of the year. The solo job inflated the cushion to 5-2.
Texas A&M pushed the margin to four runs in the ninth. JB Moss reached on an infield single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored when Allemand laced a triple down the rightfield line.
Simonds (3-1) tip-toed around eight hits and one walk while striking out one in 5.0 innings. He allowed two runs, one earned. Matt Kent worked 1.2 blank frames, scattering two hits while striking out one in 1.2 innings. Andrew Vinson earned his third save of the season, striking out three of the batters he faced in 2.1 innings, including two in the ninth.
Austin Bain (1-2) was saddled with the loss. He allowed five runs, one earned, on five hits and four walks while striking out five in 5.2 innings.
The Tigers outhit A&M 11-7, but LSU had four runners retired on the bases and left nine on base. Stevenson and Bregman were the only two players to record multiple hits in the game, both going 2-for-4.
