BATON ROUGE — Matt Tolbert’s three-run home run ignited a 15-run uprising by Ole Miss over the final three innings as the 18th-ranked Rebels ran roughshod through LSU’s depleted pitching staff in an 23-10 rout Saturday at Alex Box Stadium, moving the Rebels (27-11-1, 11-6) into a first-place tie with the second-ranked Tigers (26-11-1, 11-6) in the Southeastern Conference.
The teams play the rubber game of the three-game series Easter Sunday at 1p.m. The winner will have sole possession of the league lead heading into next weekend’s action. Ole Miss will also be going for just its fifth series victory over LSU since 1984, and their first in Baton Rouge since 1982.
Carl Lafferty, who went 4-for-4 to pace the Rebels’ 23-hit attack, started the seventh with a single before being replaced by pinch runner Matt Mossberg. Tiger reliever Roy Corcoran struck out Josh Christian, but on strike three, the pitch was in the dirt, allowing Mossberg to move to second. Corcoran walked Craig Nugen before Tolbert lined a 1-0 offering off the Tigers’ national championship billboard in right field to give the Rebels an 11-8 lead.
Burney Hutchinson gave the Rebels another run in the frame with a triple just inside the first base bag, but Zeph Zinsman’s pinch hit home run to lead off the seventh countered that run and pulled the Tigers back to within 12-9.
The Rebels extended the lead to 14-9 in the eighth as Nugen brought home Mossberg on a sacrifice fly, then Tolbert laced a double into left center to plate Christian.
LSU had one last chance to get back in the game, as they loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but Matt Heath grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Rebels then opened the floodgates in the ninth, as Mossberg hit a three-run homer and Cox added a two-run blast as nine consecutive Ole Miss batters reached off of Tiger reliever Weylin Guidry. It got so desperate that LSU coach Skip Bertman put shortstop Ryan Theriot in to pitch, making him the first Tiger position player to pitch since Johnnie Thibodeaux did so in 1997 contests against Arkansas and Alabama.
Theriot walked a batter, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter, but he retired the side after the Rebels had scored nine runs.
Early on, the Tigers appeared to pick up where they left off in Friday’s 15-2 rout, running out to a 6-0 lead after two.
Wally Pontiff’s sacrifice fly scored Theriot in the first, then the Tigers got five in the second. Heath started the inning with a walk, and two batters later, LSU had runners on second and third after Sean Barker’s double.
Aaron Hill punched a single through the left side of the Rebel infield to score Heath, and Theriot followed with a base hit of his own that brought Barker home. Ponitff added his second sacrifice fly of the game, then Bryan Moore laced a two-run double down the right field line to make it 6-0.
But the lead evaporated immediately, as the Rebels’ dormant offense awoke with a six-run uprising in the third. Tolbert singled, and two batters later, he was safe at second when Brian Wilson threw away a ground ball.
Glen Morris walked to load bases, then Burney Hutchinson’s infield single scored Tolbert. Another RBI single, this one by Lance Jones, brought home Clint Farrar, with Chad Sterbens’ grounder to the hole in second scoring Morris to cut the LSU lead to 6-3.
Lafferty’s two-run single then cut the LSU lead to 6-5, and the Rebels tied it on Nugen’s fielder’s choice.
Farrar’s leadoff homer gave the Rebels the lead at 7-6, but that margin was to be brief, as Pontiff untied the game in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run homer to right. Christian’s RBI single tied the game for the second time at 8-8 in the fifth.
Ole Miss reliever Adam Yates was effective in keeping the Tiger bats in check, going 5 1/3 innings and allowing three runs to run his record to 5-0.
Corcoran, who was the third of eight LSU pitchers, took the loss, his second in four days, falling to 5-3.