Ole Miss baseball finishes regular season in Baton Rouge with 9-3 loss to LSU; Rebs to face State in game one of SEC Tournament
BATON ROUGE, La. – (Release) On Saturday at Alex Box Stadium/Skip Bertman Field, LSU won game three of the series against Ole Miss 9-3. The Tigers won 4-2 on Friday and 5-1 on Thursday.
The Rebels dropped to 27-28 overall and 11-19 in Southeastern Conference play as they head to a Tuesday game in Hoover, Ala., where they will be the 12th seed on day one of the SEC Tournament. The Tigers improved to 36-20 on the season and 13-17 in the league.
LSU scored two runs in the first inning, but it was a six-run fourth inning that put the Tigers up 8-0 and made any path back in this one difficult for Ole Miss.
Prior to the bottom of the fourth, in the top of that inning, Ethan Groff led off for the Rebels with a triple to the right center wall. But the Rebels, trailing only 2-0 at that point, failed to score in the inning, and LSU came through with its biggest moments thereafter.
With a 4-0 lead and the bases loaded, Tigers’ leading hitter Tommy White launched his 22nd home run of the season. The Rebels then trailed by eight runs.
Ole Miss got a run in the sixth inning. Reagan Burford flew out to right field to score Ethan Groff who had doubled and moved to third on a Campbell Smithwick groundout.
In the bottom of the sixth, White again sent one out of the park, his team-leading 23rd round-tripper of the season, for a 9-1 LSU lead.
Rebel starter Mason Nichols (4-2) pitched into the fourth inning with two Tigers aboard. He allowed four earned runs on five hits with a strikeout and three walks. Mason Morris, Brayden Jones, Ryne Rodriguez, JT Quinn, and Mitch Murrell pitched for the Rebels before this one was over.
In the top of the seventh, Eli Berch walked and Jackson Ross doubled to set things up for more Rebel runs. Luke Hill grounded out to score Berch, while Will Furniss singled to score Ross. It was 9-3 LSU at that point, and that’s the way it ended.
The second of seven Tiger pitchers, Nate Ackenhausen (3-4), got the loss. The Tigers had 12 hits to the Rebels’ 7. For Ole Miss, Groff was 2-for-4 on the day. White was 2-for-5 with five RBI for LSU.
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Ole Miss enters the SEC Tournament as the No. 12 seed in the 12-team league postseason. The Rebels will face No. 5 Mississippi State at 8 p.m. Tuesday in first-round action. That will be single elimination, with the winner advancing to face Texas A&M on Thursday.
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn’s love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
