2003 Schedule/Results
2003 Statistics
LSU 11, Northeastern 8
NCAA Regionals
May 30, 2003
Alex Box Stadium (Baton Rouge, LA)
  Chris Emanuele 4-4, two runs scored |
 Freshman Arman Sidhu holds on an LSU runner at second base on Friday at the NCAA Regionals in Baton Rouge, La. NU lost 11-8. |
LSU broke open a 1-1 tie in the bottom half of the fourth inning, exploding for four runs, and eventually led 10-1 before Northeastern staged a furious rally that came up short in an 11-8 loss to the Tigers in the opening game of the NCAA Regionals at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. on Friday. The Huskies scored four times in the ninth to put a scare into the home crowd, but the Tigers held on. J.C. Holt hampered the Huskies all day, going 4-5 with five RBIs, including two home runs.
Trailing 11-4 heading into the ninth, Northeastern didn't go down quietly. Matt Morizio, Chris Emanuele and Mike Steinberg each singled to start the inning, loading the bases. Greg Smith came in to relieve Chad Vaught, who worked the eighth inning but could not get an out in the ninth. Brad Czarnowski hit a bases-clearing double to right-center off Smith to cut the NU deficit to 11-7. Czarnowski advanced to third on a passed ball and came home on a fielder's choice by Tim Bush. That is as close as the Huskies would get, though, as Smith struck out Jeff Heriot and pinch-hitter Jeff Maher to end the game.
America East champion Northeastern came out swinging to open the game as leadoff hitter Steinberg took a Jake Tompkins offering deep to center to the edge of the warning track. But it was the Tigers that struck first in the bottom half of the first inning. With one out, Holt took the first pitch he saw from NU starter Justin Hedrick over the left-centerfield wall to make it 1-0 LSU.
Hedrick got out of trouble in the first two innings after putting runners on first in second in both frames. Freshman Arman Sidhu helped out Hedrick in the third, making a stop deep in the hole and throwing from his knees to Omar Pena, who turned the double play to end the inning. The inning-ending double play gave the Huskies a big confidence boost, as they came out and tied the score 1-1 in the top half of the fourth. Bush led off the inning with a great at-bat against Tompkins. After falling behind 0-2 in the count, Bush (2-5, two RBIs) fouled off three straight pitches before singling up the middle. Heriot followed with a walk to put runners on first and second. With one out, Pena lined a shot off the wall in center field for a double that brought home Bush and left runners on second and third. The Huskies couldn't capitalize any further, however, as Tompkins fanned Sidhu and Morizio to end the threat.
After NU tied the score in the top half of the fourth, LSU gave itself some breathing room in the bottom half. Ryan Naccarata and Jon Zeringue both singled up the middle to start the inning, putting runners on first and third. Matt Liuzza then hit into a fielder's choice to score Naccarata. Bruce Sprowl followed with a double to center, setting the table for Holt, who took a Hedrick pitch deep to left-center for his second home run of the afternoon and a 5-1 lead.
LSU blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth, erupting for seven hits and five runs. Liuzza led off the attack with single down the left field line and moved to third on a Sprowl single to right-center. A blooper just over the head of Bush at third base by Holt scored Liuzza and chased Hedrick from the game. Devin Monds came on to face SEC Player of the Year Aaron Hill, who greeted the sophomore with a sharp double down the left field line that scored Sprowl and Holt. Blake Gill singled to left scoring Hill and then advanced to second on an error by Bush. With one out, Naccarata closed out the home team outburst, plating Gill with a single to left that made it 10-1.
The Huskies scratched across three runs in the top of the seventh, cutting the deficit to 10-4. NU started the rally with two outs as Emanuele (4-4, two runs) hit an opposite field home run that just inched over Zeringue's glove in right field. Steinberg then hit a single to left and Czarnowski (2-5, four RBIs) brought him home with a double to the gap in left-center. Bush kept the inning going with a single to left, knocking in Czarnowski and cutting LSU's lead to six.
Clay Harris added to the LSU lead in the bottom of the eighth for the last Tiger run of the day, taking Monds deep to right-center, making it 11-4.
Hedrick went five innings, allowing eight runs on nine hits to fall to 7-2. He had only allowed six earned runs in his previous 30 innings of work coming into the game. Monds, who relieved Hedrick, went the final three innings, giving up three runs. Tompkins went seven innings for the Tigers, keeping the Huskies in check while picking up the win to improve to 3-5.
LSU improved to 18-1 in opening round NCAA regional games and 53-10 all-time in home regional games. The 7591 paid attendance was more then Northeastern had played in front of all season combined (7396).
The Huskies fall to 27-23 overall and move to the losing side of the bracket, where they will take on the loser of the Tulane/UNC-Wilmington game at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
LSU POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Smoke Laval
"That was a pretty good baseball team and you can see why they (Northeastern) are representing their conference and are one of the 64 teams. They are pretty good."
"That's why in the first game of the tournament, everybody is anxious to get the first hit, get the first out, or hurry up and win the ballgame. You need someone like Jake (Tompkins) to calm everything down and keep us in the ballgame until we could break it open. I figured something like that would happen and that they would make a run late and hopefully we would be up by enough."
Starting pitcher Jake Tompkins
"My arm felt pretty good. I felt healthy. I think that I died there a little bit towards the last couple of innings and that's just because I haven't thrown in a while, but like coach (Laval) said I think that they (Northeastern) are a much better team than I anticipated. I know as far as I know that they were. They didn't get cheated on any of their at-bats. They were tough outs and they played hard."
Centerfielder J.C. Holt
"There's not really much to say. I had four hits so it was a big day, but I mean I wasn't expecting two home runs. I thought that maybe I would get a double or two and a bunch of singles, because most people don't expect that kind of power output from me, but the wind was blowing a little bit and I was able to stay on the ball."
"I tried to get some good hacks off and just hit the ball well. Today, the only thing that I did differently was that I tried to slow everything down and I kind of walked up to the plate and even after an out or a hit I would go up there and just slow everything up."
NORTHEASTERN POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Neil McPhee
"We thought we hit the ball very well throughout the game and gave ourselves a chance to stay in the ballgame late. I thought that the four-run inning in the bottom of the fourth when we had a double play ball up the middle and it could have been a difference sometimes in the outcome of the game. You can't predict that at that time but most of the time you're looking for a ball like that to be hit like a dribbler perfectly placed not to get the double play. It would have been better if it were hit a little bit harder because it would have been an easier play for Arman Sidhu but with that being said you can't pitch behind a team as strong as LSU, that's obvious and LSU did too much damage with the bat. We were very pleased with the way with hit the ball too.
On J.C. Holt...
"When you play a team like LSU that is strong one through nine, we expect one through nine to be able to swing the bat. He had a great day. He went the other way twice, and that's as good as anybody we've seen."
On Jake Tompkins... "The strikeouts he had were on his breaking ball. We had a number of players swinging at the breaking ball in the dirt. And, he turned it up a notch in situations early in the game when we had a few base runners. Tough competitor, I think we were successful to a degree, we got a number of hits, but he was very effective when he had to be."
Pitcher Justin Hedrick
"That's a real good ball club I faced today. I can't say more than I gave it my best. When you play a team like that you have to give it your best."
Outfielder Brad Czarnowski
"At the beginning of the day I wasn't hitting the ball that well. Maybe the heat was getting to me a little bit, but towards the end of the game I really beared down. I got some good pitches and was able to capitalize."
Northeastern 8 (27-23) Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Mike Steinberg dh........ 5 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 .261 Brad Czarnowski lf....... 5 2 2 4 0 1 4 0 2 .267 Tim Bush 3b.............. 5 1 2 2 0 1 1 2 1 .358 Jeff Heriot cf........... 4 0 0 0 1 2 4 0 1 .258 Miguel Paquette 1b....... 4 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 .219 Jeff Maher ph........... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .246 Omar Pena 2b............. 4 0 1 1 0 2 4 3 0 .310 Arman Sidhu ss........... 4 0 1 0 0 1 4 1 0 .331 Matt Morizio c........... 4 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 2 .231 Chris Emanuele rf........ 4 2 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 .329 Justin Hedrick p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - Devin Monds p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - Totals................... 40 8 13 8 1 10 24 8 6 LSU 11 (41-19-1) Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Bruce Sprowl lf.......... 4 2 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 .303 J.C. Holt cf............. 5 3 4 5 0 0 4 0 2 .292 Aaron Hill ss............ 3 1 1 2 2 0 1 2 0 .371 Blake Gill 2b............ 4 1 1 1 1 0 1 3 2 .309 Clay Harris 1b........... 3 1 1 1 2 0 8 1 0 .343 Ivan Naccarata 3b........ 4 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 .323 Ryan Patterson dh........ 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .349 Jon Zeringue rf.......... 5 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 .340 Matt Liuzza c............ 4 2 1 1 0 1 6 2 2 .283 Ty Jensen c............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .000 Jake Tompkins p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - Chad Vaught p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Greg Smith p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Totals................... 37 11 15 11 7 2 27 9 9 Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Northeastern........ 000 100 304 - 8 13 1 LSU................. 100 405 01X - 11 15 0 ------------------------------------------- E - Bush(9). DP - Northeastern 2. LOB - Northeastern 6; LSU 9. 2B - Czarnowski 2(6); Pena(15); Sidhu(14); Holt(11); Hill(26). HR - Emanuele(4); Holt 2(5); Harris, C.(12). SB - Holt(15). Northeastern IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Justin Hedrick...... 5.0 9 8 8 6 1 23 29 103 3.47 Devin Monds......... 3.0 6 3 3 1 1 14 15 53 6.05 LSU IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Jake Tompkins....... 7.0 9 4 4 1 8 30 31 96 5.32 Chad Vaught......... 1.0 3 3 3 0 0 6 6 17 7.94 Greg Smith.......... 1.0 1 1 0 0 2 4 4 20 4.18 Win - Tompkins (3-5). Loss - Hedrick (7-2). Save - None. WP - Hedrick(7). PB - Morizio(16); Jensen(1). Inherited runners/scored: Monds 2/2; Smith, G. 3/3. Pitches/strikes: Hedrick 103/57; Monds 53/37; Tompkins 96/71; Vaught 17/10; Smith, G. 20/11. Umpires - HP: Chuck Lyon 1B: Danny Everett 2B: Nick Zibelli 3B: Mike Conlin Start: 2:08 Time: 3:02 Attendance: 6242 Hedrick faced 3 batters in the 6th. Vaught faced 3 batters in the 9th. Game: BR01
Play-by-Play
2003 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Northeastern at #7 LSU - Play-by-Play
5/30/2003 at Baton Rouge (Alex Box Stadium)
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Northeastern........ 000 100 304 - 8 13 1
LSU................. 100 405 01X - 11 15 0
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Northeastern starters: 19/dh Steinberg; 17/lf Czarnowski; 45/3b Bush; 44/cf Heriot;
31/1b Paquette; 16/2b Pena; 3/ss Sidhu; 11/c Morizio; 7/rf Emanuele; 24/p Hedrick;
LSU starters: 24/lf Sprowl; 1/cf Holt; 5/ss Hill; 3/2b Gill; 21/1b Harris, C.; 7/3b
Naccarata; 28/dh Patterson; 16/rf Zeringue; 14/c Liuzza; 12/p Tompkins;
Northeastern 1st - Steinberg flied out to cf (0-0). Czarnowski flied out to
cf (1-0). Bush flied out to rf (0-1). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
LSU 1st - Sprowl grounded out to 2b (0-1). Holt homered to left field, RBI
(0-0). Hill flied out to cf (2-0). Gill walked (3-2). Gill advanced to second on a
wild pitch. Harris, C. walked (3-2). Naccarata struck out looking (2-2). 1 run, 1
hit, 0 errors, 2 LOB.
Northeastern 2nd - Heriot popped up to 2b (0-1). Paquette grounded out to 2b
(0-2). Pena struck out swinging (2-2). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
LSU 2nd - Patterson singled up the middle (1-2). Patterson advanced to second
on a passed ball. Zeringue popped up to 2b (3-1). Liuzza lined out to ss (0-1).
Sprowl walked (3-1). Holt grounded out to p (1-0). 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 2
LOB.
Northeastern 3rd - Sidhu doubled to right center (0-0). Morizio flied out to
lf (2-2). Emanuele singled through the left side (2-2); Sidhu advanced to third.
Steinberg popped up to 3b (0-1). Czarnowski struck out looking (1-2). 0 runs, 2
hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB.
LSU 3rd - Hill walked (3-0). Gill flied out to cf (2-2). Harris, C. grounded
into double play ss to 2b to 1b (0-0); Hill out on the play. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0
errors, 0 LOB.
Northeastern 4th - Bush singled to center field (0-2). Heriot walked (3-0);
Bush advanced to second. Paquette infield fly to ss (1-0). Pena doubled to center
field, RBI (0-1); Heriot advanced to third; Bush scored. Sidhu struck out swinging,
out at first c to 1b (0-2). Morizio struck out swinging, out at first c to 1b (0-2).
1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB.
LSU 4th - Naccarata singled to center field (0-0). Patterson popped up to 2b
(2-1). Zeringue singled to center field (0-0); Naccarata advanced to third. Liuzza
reached on a fielder's choice, RBI (1-2); Zeringue out at second ss unassisted;
Naccarata scored. Sprowl singled to left center, advanced to second on the throw
(0-0); Liuzza advanced to third. Holt homered to left center, 3 RBI (1-2); Sprowl
scored; Liuzza scored. Hill walked (3-0). Gill flied out to lf (0-2). 4 runs, 4
hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
Northeastern 5th - Emanuele singled to right field (1-2). Steinberg struck
out swinging (1-2). Czarnowski fouled out to lf (0-0). Bush struck out swinging
(0-2). 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
LSU 5th - Harris, C. walked (3-2). Naccarata popped up to ss (0-1). Patterson
fouled out to 3b (0-1). Zeringue flied out to lf (1-0). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors,
1 LOB.
Northeastern 6th - Heriot struck out swinging (3-2). Paquette out at first 1b
to p (0-2). Pena struck out swinging (1-2). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
LSU 6th - Liuzza singled down the lf line (2-1). Sprowl singled to right
center (2-0); Liuzza advanced to third. Holt doubled to left field, RBI (2-2);
Sprowl advanced to third; Liuzza scored. Monds to p for Hedrick. Hill doubled to
left field, 2 RBI (3-1); Holt scored; Sprowl scored. Gill singled through the left
side, RBI, advanced to second on a muffed throw by 3b (1-1); Hill scored. Harris, C.
flied out to lf (0-0). Naccarata singled to left field, RBI (0-2); Gill scored.
Patterson reached on a fielder's choice (0-2); Naccarata out at second p to ss.
Zeringue singled up the middle (1-0); Patterson advanced to second. Liuzza struck
out looking (2-2). 5 runs, 7 hits, 1 error, 2 LOB.
Northeastern 7th - Sidhu grounded out to 3b (1-0). Morizio flied out to cf
(1-0). Emanuele homered to right field, RBI (1-2). Steinberg singled to left field
(2-0). Czarnowski doubled to left center, RBI (1-2); Steinberg scored. Bush singled
through the left side, RBI (0-0); Czarnowski scored. Heriot flied out to cf (0-0).
3 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
LSU 7th - Sprowl grounded out to 3b (1-1). Holt singled to left field (0-1).
Holt stole second. Hill popped up to lf (1-2). Gill flied out to cf (1-1). 0
runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
Northeastern 8th - Vaught to p for Tompkins. Paquette grounded out to 2b
(1-1). Pena grounded out to 2b (1-0). Sidhu grounded out to ss (0-1). 0 runs, 0
hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
LSU 8th - Harris, C. homered to right center, RBI (1-2). Naccarata walked
(3-2). Patterson flied out to cf (0-0). Zeringue grounded into double play 3b to 2b
to 1b (1-0); Naccarata out on the play. 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Northeastern 9th - Jensen to c for Liuzza. Morizio singled to right center
(1-0). Emanuele singled to center field (1-1); Morizio advanced to second. Steinberg
singled through the left side (3-1); Emanuele advanced to second; Morizio advanced
to third. Smith, G. to p for Vaught. Czarnowski doubled to right center, 3 RBI
(3-1); Steinberg scored; Emanuele scored; Morizio scored. Czarnowski advanced to
third on a passed ball. Bush grounded out to ss, RBI (3-1); Czarnowski scored,
unearned. Heriot struck out swinging (0-2). Maher pinch hit for Paquette. Maher
struck out swinging (3-2). 4 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
