Super run

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jun 2, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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From the middle of the diamond at a raucous Alex Box Stadium, Michael Hollander knew what was coming Sunday night against Southern Miss in the championship game of an NCAA regional tournament.

Heck, by that point of the game and at this point of LSU’s magical baseball season, everybody had a pretty good hunch what was looming with red-hot Blake Dean at the plate and the bases full of Tigers.

Dean put the exclamation point on what Hollander started in a six-run LSU uprising with a bases-clearing triple as the Tigers broke away from the pesky Golden Eagles for an 11-4 triumph.

LSU extended its single-season school record winning streak to 23 games, an SEC record. But this one carried a little more meaning, as the Tigers (46-16-1) move on to the super regional round for the first time since 2004.

UC Irvine (41-16) will visit The Box later this week for the best-of-three series that will be the curtain call for the 71-year-old stadium.

With a third straight convincing victory in the regional, LSU showed no signs of slowing down Sunday. Two more victories against the Anteaters separate the Tigers from a 14th trip to the College World Series and the anticipation was palpable.

“Why get tired of it when you’re winning?” LSU reliever Paul Bertuccini said. He nabbed the victory in relief by striking out all four USM hitters he faced with the Tigers clinging to a 3-2 lead. “All of this is just building on our confidence and helping us build momentum.”

Dean has single-handedly supplied a good chunk of LSU’s momentum throughout the Tigers’ seven-game postseason surge with six home runs and 15 runs batted in over the last seven games.

After Bertuccini struck out the side in the Southern Miss sixth, LSU’s lineup — lethargic to that point — came to life.

Eagles starter Brian Leach walked Micah Gibbs to start the frame and then plunked Derek Helenihi. Matt Clark, who swatted two home runs Saturday and like Dean also has six in the postseason, laced a looping double just inside the left-field line to score Gibbs and push the lead to 4-2.

Collin Cargill relieved for Southern Miss and recorded two quick outs. But LSU second baseman Ryan Schimpf reached on a full-count walk to load the bases for Hollander, the only senior in the LSU starting lineup.

Already 2-for-3, Hollander rammed a 1-and-1 pitch from Cargill through the middle and just off second baseman James Ewing’s glove for a two-run single and a 6-2 Tigers advantage.