Generally it's good to be the best going into the playoffs. Unless it's Southeastern Conference baseball, that is.
For the fourth straight season, the No. 1 seed lost in the opening round of the SEC Tournament to the No. 8 seed; this time it was the Vanderbilt Commodores victimizing the regular season co-SEC champion LSU Tigers 4-1, led by a stellar complete game performance by staff ace Mike Minor, and giving themselves a huge boost to their NCAA hopes.
Minor went the distance against the powerful offense of LSU, allowing just one earned run on six hits and three walks while striking out five as Vanderbilt snapped a four-game losing streak and continued its strong record of play in the SEC Tournament. The Commodores (32-24) won the championship in 2007 and advanced to the semifinals last season.
The win also marked the sixth time in their last seven meetings that Vanderbilt defeated the Tigers. The Commodores were also the third lower-seeded team of the day to win, as seventh-seeded Arkansas knocked off second-seeded Florida 8-5 and sixth-seeded Georgia beat third-seeded Ole Miss 6-3.
LSU starter Austin Ross shut out Vanderbilt for the first three innings but allowed Andrew Giobbi a home run in the fourth to make it 1-0 Commodores, one of his game-high three hits on the evening. Vanderbilt added a run in the fifth when Brian Harris walked, advanced to third on a double by Jonathan White and scored on a sacrifice fly by Curt Casali.
Minor was aided by strong defense behind him, getting three double plays in the first six innings to get out of trouble. The only run scored off him came in the seventh when Tyler Hanover led of the inning with a double down the right field line, the only extra base hit by the Tigers (41-16), moved to third on a one-out single and scored on a groundout by Austin Nola.
The Commodores got two valuable insurance runs in the seventh to chase Ross when White and Steven Liddle opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Casali doubled home White off relief pitcher Daniel Bradshaw, and Aaron Westlake followed with a sacrifice fly to score Liddle for the final tally.
Ross took the loss as he finished with 6-plus innings pitched and was tagged for four runs, all earned.
Vanderbilt plays again tomorrow against the winner of the Alabama-South Carolina game.
