BATON ROUGE REGIONAL:

BATON ROUGE, La. — The UC Irvine baseball team showed a little small ball, a little long ball and, if not showed, at least executed a little hidden ball to stun streaking LSU and earn an 11-5 victory Saturday in the first of a best-of three NCAA Super Regional.

All nine spots in the Anteaters lineup had at least one hit to back junior All-American starter Scott Gorgen’s strong 6 2/3 innings, to help No. 8-ranked UCI (42-16) come within one win of a return trip to the College World Series.

UCI will start sophomore left-hander Danny Bibona (9-3 with a 3.03 earned-run average) in today’s 1 p.m. Game 2 (ESPN) at Alex Box Stadium against LSU’s senior Jared Bradford (10-4, 4.05 ERA).

The victory halted a 23-game winning streak by the No. 5-ranked Tigers (46-17-1), who were limited to single runs in the second (unearned) and sixth by Gorgen, who improved to 12-3. Gorgen, drafted in the fourth round Thursday by the St. Louis Cardinals, struck out eight and walked four trimming his earned-run average to 2.26.

LSU’s streak was the longest in the NCAA this season and a Southeastern Conference record.

Gorgen, staked to a 2-0 led when Tony Asaro singled home Ollie Linton and Ben Orloff, who had both walked to open the game, stranded five runners in scoring position, four at third base.

He helped himself out of a jam in the fourth, inducing a 5-4-3 double play with runners on first and second with one out.

In the sixth, three straight walks with two outs pushed him to the brink of being pulled. Leon Landry caromed a ball of Gorgen’s glove for an infield single to drive in a run and pull the Tigers within 6-2 with the potential tying run stepping to the plate in Derek Helinehi.

Helenehi, however, never got the chance to add to his 41 RBIs, as sophomore second baseman Casey Stevenson, who had fielded the ball after it was redirected by Gorgen, pulled off the hidden ball trick to tag out DJ LeMahieu off second base for the final out of the inning.

The play, the third hidden ball trick used successfully by UCI this season, sparked controversy and sent the crowd of 8,023, already dismayed, into the isles.

LeMahieu and LSU Coach Paul Mainieri both said LeMahieu, who was one step off the bag, got back to the base well before Stevenson applied the tag.

“I don’t even think the umpire [Paul Rogers working second base in the four-man crew] was watching,” Mainieri said. “I was watching from the bench and I saw the whole thing develop. We tell our kids, when the pitcher isn’t on the mound, you’re supposed to be on the base. But he wasn’t a half step off the base. I can’t blame the kid. I thought it was obvious that he got back.”

LeMahiue said he saw Stevenson breaking toward him out of the corner of his eye and stepped back in contact with the bag before he was tagged.

Stevenson said he thought LeMahiue may have missed the bag when he tried to step back on.

LSU first base coach Javi Sanchez immediately charged toward Rogers and threw his hat to the dirt, prompting his ejection. Mainieri then came out from the dugout and argued for at least five minutes as the crowd consistently booed.

Eventually, the umpires ordered LSU fielders to their positions, as UCI waited quietly in its dugout.

Both Mainieri and Stevenson said UCI did a good job of selling the out to the umpire, who hesitated before making the call.

“We were screaming ‘We got him! We got him!’ ” Stevenson said. “We started running off the field even before the ump even made the call and he made the out call.”

Almost as wild as the crowd, which lived up to its well-earned reputation for both decibels and dedication, were the Tigers’ pitchers.

LSU starter Ryan Verdugo, a ninth-round pick by San Francisco, and reliever Paul Bertuccini combined to walk five in 5 1/3 innings.

All five scored to help UCI claim a 6-1 lead.

But UCI also hit its way onto the scoreboard.

A two-out RBI single by Jeff Cusick, who had three hits to lead the visitors’ 13-hit attack, upped UCI’s lead to 3-1 in the fifth inning.

After Francis Larson and Stevenson walked to open the UCI sixth and advanced on an Eric Deragisch sacrifice bunt, sophomore Sean Madigan, now eight for 15 in the postseason with eight RBIs in his last two games, sat on a 2-1 curveball and launched a three-run home run over the wall in right-center field to give UCI a 6-1 cushion.

“I usually don’t do that [sit on a pitch], but he threw me a fourth straight curveball and I just connected,” Madigan said.

Dillon Bell’s pinch-hit single plated Cusick, who had doubled and Bell scored from first when, one out later, Deragisch’s looping single to left bounced off left fielder Jared Mitchell’s glove for an error.

After Cusick drove in a run with a groundout in the eighth, junior Brock Bardeen hammered his fourth pinch-hit homer of the season, this one a two-run shot, to make it 11-2.

LSU, which had come from behind 17 times to win during the winning streak and 28 times this season, scored three in the eighth, capped by a two-run homer by LeMahiue.

But sophomore Christian Bergman worked a perfect ninth to preserve Gorgen’s win.

“I thought we got a very, very, very good performance from Scott Gorgen again,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “We capitalized, exploited some opportunities, got some base on balls. We got a clutch base hit by Asaro early, Jeff Cusick gave us a big hit (RBI). And the three-run home run by Sean Madigan was giant, as was every other run we got. Bardeen, of course, hits a big two-run home run. We also got a big play in right field [a diving catch by Madigan].

“So, for us, it was a little bit of a lot of things and a lot of guys took part in this and sparked us. We felt like we had a lot of heroes. Obviously, it was a great, huge win.”

Perhaps even a statement.

UCI, which had 53 fewer homers than the Tigers coming in, hit two of the game’s three homers.

The ’Eaters also had six of the game’s 10 extra-base hits.

“To come out and thundermash the baseball against these guys was something,” Madigan said.

NCAA Super Regional

Game 1

UC Irvine 11, LSU 5

SCORE BY INNINGS

Gorgen, Calahan (7), Necke (8), Avison (8) and Lowenstein; Verdugo, Bertuccini (6), Bradshaw (6) and Gibbs. W – Gorgen, 12-3. L – Verdugo, 9-3. 2B – Cusick (UCI) 2, Clark (LSU), Schimpf (LSU), Lowenstein (UCI), Stevenson (UCI). 3B – Schimpf (LSU). HR – Madigan (UCI), Bardeen (UCI), LeMahieu (LSU).