Ole Miss batters had just one hit with runners on base Thursday against LSU as the Tigers beat the Rebels 5-1 at Alex Box Stadium in the opener of the last regular-season series for both teams.
Thursday’s game was delayed for about an hour and a half in the bottom of the sixth inning due to lightning and rain.
The Rebels (27-26, 11-17 SEC) went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and struck out 13 times. Ole Miss put a pair of runners on base with one out in the ninth, but a fielder’s choice and flyout from freshman pinch hitter Drew Markle ended the game.
Despite the loss, Ole Miss clinched a berth in next week’s SEC Tournament by virtue of Mississippi State’s win over Missouri Thursday.
“We have to have some tougher at-bats, some more competitive at-bats, make it a little harder on them,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “You have to get some traffic on the bases.”
LSU (34-20, 11-17) scored the game’s first run with two outs in the second, a single up the middle from Steven Milam that scored Hayden Travinski, who had reached on a hit-by-pitch. Tommy White hit a triple with one out in the third and was driven in by Jared Jones to make it 2-0.
LSU loaded the bases in the fourth inning, and Michael Braswell drove two runners in with a single to left-center. White made it a 5-0 game in the next at-bat with an RBI on a bloop single.
Ole Miss junior starter Riley Maddox gave up seven hits over 3.1 innings and surrendered five earned runs. He struck out four batters and walked one.
“We just didn’t put enough pressure on them offensively,” Bianco said. “And I think Riley put too much on his shoulders and just had that bad fourth where, it got to the point where things get a little too fine when he got to the bottom of the … lineup and just dug himself too big of a hole.”
Sophomore third baseman Judd Utermark got the Rebels on the board in the fifth with a solo home run to left-center. LSU starter Gage Jump was taken out after the weather delay, finishing with one earned run allowed, eight strikeouts and two walks over six innings.
Ole Miss sophomores Brayden Jones and Mason Morris pitched 4.2 scoreless innings to end the game with a combined six strikeouts and two walks. Sophomore first baseman Will Furniss led the Rebels with two hits.
“Proud of those guys (Jones and Morris),” Bianco said. “They came in, filled it up, gave us an opportunity, kept it close and kept us in the game with a chance to win late.”
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