High-flying Byrd

• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 17, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:30 a.m.

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AUBURN, Ala. — LSU pitching coach Terry Rooney didn’t hold back about the magnitude of the job junior left-hander Ryan Byrd did Friday night.

“Ryan Byrd’s six shutout innings tonight were the biggest innings of the entire season,” Rooney said after LSU defeated Auburn 15-6 to extend its winning streak to 15 games.

Thanks to goings-on elsewhere, the visiting Tigers had already clinched the SEC Western Division championship before the final out, but LSU players and coaches raved about Byrd’s relief role on an important night.

The Auburn Tigers led 5-2 when Byrd replaced starter Blake Martin after two innings. Auburn didn’t score again until its unearned run in the ninth against Nolan Cain.

“He was in total control,” Rooney said of Byrd. “They were the six best innings of the year — not just because he threw up zeros on the board, but because of what he’s gone through this year.

“He’s struggled a little bit. He’s overcome it. This pitching staff, as we’ve talked about the entire year, has held each other accountable, and everyone’s picked everybody up the entire year. This was just another example of everybody contributing.”

He might have been talking about the entire team and its resurgence. LSU (38-16-1) won the SEC West at 17-11-1 before the game was even over, thanks to Georgia’s 5-4 victory against Alabama in the second game of a doubleheader.

LSU coach Paul Mainieri found out in the seventh inning, with his team leading 11-5, but he kept it too himself — mostly.

“I only told our staff,” Mainieri said. “I didn’t want to distract the players, and I wanted them to feel like they were going out there and doing it themselves.”

Nobody will accuse LSU of backing into a championship. The winning streak is its longest since the record 19-game streak in 1997, the year of the program’s fourth national championship, and this team’s 11-game SEC winning streak matches the single-season record set by the 1991 team, which won the first national title.

“We’re still hungry for more,” said sophomore outfielder Jared Mitchell, who was 2-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs. “It feels good, but it’s not where it stops at.

“Every day when you come out to the park, you come out for a win. I was fortunate on the football side to get a national championship, and anytime you can come out here and keep getting wins day by day by day, it’s a huge thrill. It’s more than what people might think it is, and it feels that way every day.”

By virtue of its victory and Vanderbilt’s 5-4 loss to Florida, LSU has locked up second place overall in the conference, which strengthens its résumé for hosting postseason baseball at Alex Box Stadium.