LSU won the series 2-1, winning
Friday and Saturday’s contests, but could not keep up with the Rebels on Sunday
as they escaped Baton Rouge with a lone victory.
Mississippi is coached by former LSU player
Mike Bianco. The former Tiger was offered the head coaching job over the summer
at LSU, but declined saying his family was happy to live in Oxford.
LSU now leads the overall series
with Ole Miss, 156-134, though the Rebels won all four games between the teams
last season. Ole Miss swept a three-game series from LSU in Oxford, Miss. before
defeating the Tigers in the second round of the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
LSU has captured seven of its last
nine regular-season series with Ole Miss, and the Tigers have a 15-10 record
against the Rebels this decade.
Friday
LSU 4 Mississippi
3
LSU was granted a free pass Friday
night as they escaped Alex Box Stadium with a 4-3 victory. The bases-loaded walk
in the bottom of the ninth was anything but climatic for the struggling Tigers,
but coach Paul Mainieri said his squad earned the win.
“That wasn’t a cheap win,” Mainieri
said. “We earned that win tonight. We swung the bats. The kids played hard. We
made some great defensive plays. Pitching was outstanding. I thought it was a
heck of a team win.”
Five scoreless innings preceded
LSU’s game-winning walk in the bottom of the ninth, while the bull pin assembled
perhaps its finest performance of the season under pressure.
Freshman designated hitter Ryan
Schimpf was presented with two bases-loaded opportunities in the seventh and the
ninth. A hard-hit ball to the short stop ended the inning in the seventh, but
Schimpf made the most of his second chance in the ninth, drawing four straight
pitches for the 4-3 win.
“I was pumped,” Schimpf said.
“Anytime you get a second chance at something I was ready to jump on
it.”
LSU collected 14 hits on the night,
with Jared Mitchell, Sean Ochinko and Nick Pontiff each contributing three hits.
The threesome was joined by Blake Dean and Michael Hollander adding two of their
own.
Tiger batters left three men on
bases to end the contest against Mississippi’s ace-reliever, Scott Bittle.
Bittle, allowing a run on two hits in 0.2 innings with two walks, including the
game-winner to Schimpf.
Mississippi starter Will Kline allowed a
season-high 12 hits, allowing three runs in 7.2 innings of work. Kline walked
one and struck out seven.
"Our kids battled him hard," said
Mainieri. "They played the game the way I'd like to see them play. I was very
proud of them."
Charlie Furbush started on the hill
for LSU, allowing three runs off 10 hits in 6.1 innings of play. Paul Bertuccini
replaced Furbush in the seventh, allowing no hits and no runs in 0.2 innings to
close out the seventh.
In the eighth, Sunday starter Jared
Bradford worked two innings of relief to help secure the victory, 4-3.
Bradford allowed no runs and no hits, and
improved his season record to 6-2.
“It feels good, especially against
Ole Miss,” Ochinko said. “There’s always a little rivalry with Ole Miss. It was
a fun night to play. The place was real loud. It was just like the old
days.
“It was fun to play, and it was
great to get a Friday night win.”
Saturday
LSU 8 Mississippi
2
LSU pitching continued its
impressive effort on Saturday as the Tigers batted out eight runs for an 8-2
victory over Mississippi.
Sophomore left-hander Ryan Byrd
completed a gem Saturday afternoon, earning a complete game win while giving up
two runs on seven hits with just three strikeouts. The effort was the first
complete game by an LSU pitcher this season and helped claim the Tigers second
conference series win.
"I was able to hit my spots on
everything and that is the name of the game," said Byrd. "It was a great game
all around, a team effort."
Byrd's gem marked the first
complete game by a Tiger pitcher since Derik Olvey fired nine innings in a 2-1
loss to South
Carolina on April 2, 2006. Byrd became the first LSU
pitcher to earn a complete-game SEC win since Clay Dirks defeated Tennessee on May 14,
2005.
"It's a great honor to throw a
complete game," said Byrd. "To do it here in front of the home crowd against Ole
Miss and to take the series is a big thrill."
At the plate, for the fourth
straight game LSU pounded out double-digit hits with 12. Chris Jackson,
Mitchell, Dean and Ochinko all earned a pair of hits against the Rebels of
Mississippi with Chris McGhee as the lone starter without a hit on Saturday.
The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead
in the first and never looked back. Jackson
started things off with a double down the left-field line that was followed by a
perfectly executed bunt by Mitchell to advance Jackson to third. Dean next singled to
center-field to score Jackson as the first run of the
contest.
Ochinko next grounded out, followed
by Schimpf with a hit by pitch that loaded the bases. Robert Lara is then
walked, which scores Mitchell from third for the second free run of the series.
Pontiff next grounds out to score
Dean on third with McGhee striking out in the next at bat to end the inning,
3-0.
The Rebels answered back in the
third with a solo homerun to right field that was aided by a strong gusting
wind.
In the fourth, the Tigers grabbed
another run on series of small ball tactics. Pontiff led off the inning with a
single to center field. McGhee advanced Pontiff to second on a sacrifice bunt,
and stole third on a wild pitch. Hollander next grounded to third, scoring
Pontiff for a 4-1 lead.
McGhee reached base in the sixth
with a walk and eventually reached home on a Mitchell single to center field.
LSU would add three more runs over the next two innings, only to be matched by a
single Mississippi run that made the final score 8-2.
“If you were to tell me we would
have 14 hits and Jackson would be 0-for-5, I thought you would
be kidding me,” Mainieri said. “Jackson is such a vital part of the
offense.
Sunday
Mississippi 16 LSU
5
Sunday’s contest against Mississippi resembled
nothing from their prior meetings earlier in the weekend as the Rebels downed
LSU 16-5.
Mississippi batters found the gaps Sunday
afternoon as they combined for 15 total hits in their route of the Tigers. Even
as the Rebels continued to pull away, LSU coach Paul Mainieri said the outcome
didn’t represent how close Sunday’s game could have been.
“I told the players after the game
it is not often you get beat 16-5 and really feel like you could have, or should
have won the ball game,” Mainieri said. “We make the game 3-2 and I think we
have a chance. We bring in Bradford, and I have
never seen a kid have so much bad luck. I think Jared just had a lot of bad luck
today.”
The Tigers extended their hitting
streak to five straight games with double digit hits. LSU collected 10 on
Sunday, with McGhee, Pontiff, Dean and Ochinko leading the way with each a pair
of hits.
The LSU offense had a good day at
the plate, but luck seemed to be on Mississippi’s side as they slugged toward the
gaps the entire evening.
“It’s a weird feeling when you get
beat by such a big score and you feel with a few breaks and better play that you
could have won the ball game,” Mainieri said.
McGhee, a sophomore right-fielder
from Alexandria,
participated with a slew of other teams across the country on Sunday in honoring
Jackie Robinson. McGhee wore the No. 42 in honor of Robinson, who broke the
color barrier in baseball 60 years ago.
“I really think a lot of the kid
and really admire him,” Mainieri said of McGhee. “He does some good things. I
love the effort he gave. It was a monumental thing in professional sports what
[Jackie] Robinson did. Chris McGhee is proud to be an African-American baseball
player. He asked me if he could wear No. 42 and I said certainly. Fortunately we
had a No. 42 sitting on the shelf.”
The Rebels started things off with
a three run blast in the second inning to put Mississippi up 3-0. The home run was Even
Button’s first of the year, which propelled the Rebels into a 16-5 route.
LSU didn’t answer until the fourth
when Pontiff singled in Lara from second for a 3-1 score. McGhee next slammed a
double into left field to score Pontiff, creating a competitive 3-2 ballgame to
end the four.
Mississippi in the fifth added four runs on a
series of small hits. The Rebels scored a run in the sixth, while LSU managed
two runs in the bottom of the inning. Jackson
knocked in a pair of Tiger base runners on a single past the second baseman to
make the score 8-4, Mississippi.
Dean would add the final LSU run of
the day with a solo home run to right field in the seventh, while the Rebels
would add eight more runs to escape the weekend sweep.