Baseball Game With ULL Where Fights Broke Out...

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The temperatures and LSU’s bats were not the only things hot at Alex Box on Sunday afternoon. Umpires ejected a player from each team and ULL head coach Tony Robichaux in two separate incidents that followed taunting from LSU left fielder Matt Heath following his home run in the seventh inning.

Robichaux and Cajuns’ pitcher Doug Bair were ejected in the ninth inning when Bair deliberately threw at Heath on his next trip to the plate. LSU’s Aaron Hill was ejected later in the inning when home plate umpire Randy Wetzel ruled that he intentionally let his bat slip out of his hands and into the ULL dugout.

Since Bair was warned prior to hitting Heath with a pitch, NCAA rules state he is suspended for the next four games. Robichaux and Hill were forced to sit out one game and therefore could not participate in Sunday's second game.

"The suspension of the player who threw the bat in the dugout (Hill) is covered under the fight rule," explained umpiring crew chief Ken Eldridge, "which says any kind of abuse, which is equipment or anything else, is construed as fighting, and his suspension is one game."

But by the time Hill was thrown out, he had already helped LSU build held a 12-1 lead. His two-run homer in the top of the first inning was followed by Sean Barker’s solo shot that turned out to be the winning run.

Heath’s homer in seventh, a two-run shot to center field, came with two outs. As he made his way around the base paths, he saluted fans in the right field bleachers and continued to gesture as he rounded second and third. Cajun players objected strongly when Heath glared into their dugout and came out on the field when he crossed the plate.

That brought LSU players out onto the field, requiring umpires to restore calm before the game could resume. When it did, the Tigers got two more base runners on board but ended the inning with a 7-1 lead.

Bair’s plunking of Heath in the ninth inning put two runners on for the Tigers. Danny McMurtry replaced Bair on the mound and served up a three-run homer to designated hitter Dustin Hahn. The final two runs for LSU came when catcher Dustin Welch, a late-inning defensive replacement for Phillips, hit his first career homer into the left field bleachers.

Hill’s ejection forced LSU to moved Clay Harris from pitcher to third base and Pontiff from third to shortstop. Harris took over for Tompkins and held the Cajuns scoreless for 1.2 innings.

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