So long, farewell

• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 11, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 2 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Saturday was Senior Day at Alex Box Stadium, but one-third of LSU’s batting order acted as if it were Sophomore Day.

Three second-year Tigers did a lot of damage in a 16-4 victory against Mississippi State that extended a number of streaks for LSU and increased its lead in the SEC Western Division.

Ryan Schimpf was 4-for-4 with four runs, four RBIs and two home runs, including his second three-run homer in two days. He also walked.

Blake Dean hit a three-run homer and scored twice. Jared Mitchell was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.

“I think we’re just all coming together,” Dean said. “If one of us is not doing it, one of the other one picks us up and so forth. We’ve been swinging the bats well lately.”

Heading into what could be the last game at 70-year-old Alex Box Stadium, LSU (34-16-1) has been doing a lot of things well lately.

An 11-game winning streak, which includes the program’s first eight-game Southeastern Conference winning streak in 11 seasons, has given the Tigers a 14-11-1 record in the league and a better grip on first place in the West.

Alabama (13-13) and Ole Miss (13-13) both lost Saturday. Arkansas is 12-13.

Freshman Leon Landry hit a two-run homer for LSU, which had 16 hits.

LSU coach Paul Mainieri said he’s being careful about putting too much stock in the team’s winning streak.

“If you stop and you start thinking about something like that,” he said, “this game will jump right up and bite you.
“I just know every day we have a job to do.”

After the win Saturday, he said his thoughts were already on the game at 1 p.m. today, the last scheduled playing date at The Box.

Continued winning could earn the Tigers a home regional, but when Mainieri went down the left-field line in the sixth inning
Saturday, he changed the Alex Box countdown sign from 2 games to 1.