Unprecedented?

So far, no one can find any records of two hitters hitting two home runs in the same inning at any level of baseball.  OK, I'm sure it's happened in youth leagues many many times, but no one has found any record that it's happened in college or MLB, and I haven't seen anything about high school either.

Record-keeping in MLB is outstanding going back to the turn of the century (19th to 20th, not 20th to 21st).  Record keeping in college?  Not so much.  We'll probably never be able to definitively confirm that it's never happened in college baseballs before last night.

As outstanding and amazing as Schimpf's and Dean's collective feat was, it was not the decisive factor in the game.  When Schimpf stepped to the plate for the first time in the 5th inning, LSU was leading 3-2.  When Dean's first at-bat was finished, we were leading 5-2.  They gave us breathing room, but it was still a game.

The decisive, game-breaking hit belonged to Micah Gibbs, who came up 4 batters later with the score still 5-2 and with bases loaded with two outs.  Gibbs laced a bases-clearing double off the wall to extend LSU's lead to 8-2, and the route was on.  Austin Nola then drove home Gibbs and Mikie Mahtook drove home Nola to make it 10-2.  Schimpf's and Dean's next home runs ran the score to 13-2, where it stayed until the Mercy Rule was invoked after the 7th inning.

Wait?  The Mercy Rule?  Since when does college baseball have a mercy rule?

Anyway, for the second time in as many games, LSU brought out a surprise pitcher, as utility infielder Buzzy Haydel (representing Gonzales well, I might add) was brought in to pitch the sixth inning when our 10-run 5th was over.  Like Chad Jones before him, he gave up a hit to the first batter who faced him, but like Chad Jones he recovered to get some outs.  While Jones pitched only to 3 batters and was removed before the inning was over, Haydel was allowed to finish the inning and managed to strand his runner at 3rd base, recording two strikeouts and a groundout.

A quiet 7th ended the game.  We get Arkansas this weekend.  We're finally healthy with Ochinko, and the whole pitching staff should be available as no one threw very many pitches last night.