The clutch, 'road dog' heroics brought LSU out to Knoxville for a Super Regional, but Tennessee had no intention of playing into that theme.
After grinding out a close victory on Saturday, the Volunteers took control early and made sure to squeeze the life out of LSU's comeback hopes with a 6-run fifth inning, ultimately closing out the series with a dominating 15-6 win in Knoxville.
The 15 runs allowed were the third-most in Tigers history in a tournament elimination game.
The result marked a 5-game sweep of LSU by Tennessee this season, and officially ends the career of LSU coach Paul Mainieri with a thud after the highs from a Eugene regional victory a week ago. The Tigers coach, who announced last month he'd retire at season's end, will finish his LSU career after 15 seasons. Mainieri has been a college head baseball coach since 1983, with stops at St. Thomas, Air Force and Notre Dame before arriving at LSU. He's amassed more than 1,500 wins in his head coaching career, including four SEC regular season titles, six SEC Tournament titles and one College World Series title (2009).
"It just wasn't our day today, obviously," Mainieri said after the game.
The home run fest began early on Sunday, with Jake Rucker taking a Landon Marceaux slider out of the ballpark for a 2-run lead in the first inning. Tigers leadoff man Dylan Crews launched a home run of his own in the bottom of the frame, and the pair traded solo shots again in the third inning.
"I could tell pretty quickly [Marceaux] didn't have his normal kind of stuff," Mainieri said, noting that last week's workload likely had an impact. " ... It just shows you what kind of competitor he is. He just gritted his teeth and battled through three innings."
But Marceaux was pulled after that third inning, with Mainieri telling the broadcast crew in between innings that he looked tired, a likely result of the extended work he put in during the Eugene regional. But the Tigers bullpen struggled even more mightily.
The combination of Garrett Edwards and Will Hellmers, both freshmen, along with Ty Vietmeier and Jacob Hasty worked through the next two innings, in all allowing 8 runs on six hits to pin Tennessee to an 11-2 lead after the 5th. AJ Labas, LSU's projected Game 3 starter, took over in the 6th inning.
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While LSU's pitching was a culprit in the loss, the Tigers' light hitting in Knoxville made a comeback from any deficit unlikely. A two-run home run by Doughty on Saturday was the Tigers' lone source of offense, with LSU batters strikeout out 16 times against starter Chad Dallas and closer Sean Hunley. They again struggled to get traction against Tidwell on Sunday, but began to make headway with a two-run shot by Tre' Morgan in the sixth inning, and another two-run blast by Brody Drost in the 7th to cut Tennessee's lead to 11-6.
That rally was short-lived, however, as the Vols got to Labas for yet another two-run shot in the eighth inning. Labas returned for the 9th, but handed the ball to closer Devin Fontenot to finish out the game. Camden Sewell worked the 8th for the Vols, and Redmond Walsh entered for the final two outs of the game.
"We're going to put the bats away and call it a year," Mainieri said. "In my case, call it a career."
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