OXFORD, Miss. — LSU squandered a 4-0 lead, then had to hold off a ninth-inning rally for Ole Miss for a 6-5 Southeastern Conference victory Saturday at Swayze Field.
The victory enabled the Fighting Tigers (15-10, 2-3) to avoid its first five-game losing streak since February of 2000 and its first 1-4 SEC start since 1972.
The rubber game is set for Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in a game that will be televised live statewide by the Jumbo Sports Network (WB-10 in Baton Rouge).
The Tigers conclude their five-game road trip Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond.
Trailing 6-5 in the ninth, the Rebels (14-7, 1-4) got the leadoff man on when Lane Mestepey hit Barry Gunther, and Mestepey walked Jonathan Swearingen with one out. Pinch runner Matt Mossberg moved to third on a fielder’s choice, but Drew Rogers tapped back to Mestepey to end the game.
Mestepey struggled with his control in the complete game, walking a career-high five but still improving to 4-2 on the year.
The Tigers broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the seventh on Blake Gill’s two-out single that scored Aaron Hill. LSU had the chance to score more with runners at second and third, only to have Clay Harris ground out to end the inning.
The teams traded runs in the eighth, with LSU taking a 6-4 lead on Hill’s two-out double that plated David Raymer, and Ole Miss responding with Josh Christian’s sacrifice fly.
LSU, which had scored one run in 17 innings before getting two runs in the ninth inning on Friday, got out to a 2-0 lead in the first. J.C. Holt and Hill hit the first two pitches of the game from Ole Miss’ Pete Montrenes for back-to-back singles, then Wally Pontiff singled home Holt to get the Tigers on the board and extend his own hitting streak to 17 games.
Montrenes gave up another run when Hill scored on Charlie Waite’s passed ball, but averted further damage when Matt Heath popped up and Gill grounded out.
LSU would again string together three consecutive hits to score a run in the second, as Holt singled home Chris Phillips for a 3-0 Tiger lead, and doubles by Sean Barker and Gill in the third produced another tally.
Matt Tolbert’s one-out double in the third was the Rebels’ first hit off of LSU hurler Lane Mestepey, and two batters later, the Tigers’ lead was cut in half when Burney Hutchinson homered to right center to make it 4-2.
Back-to-back hits by Shane Smith and Rogers started Ole Miss off in the fourth, and they would lead to a run when Dustin Cliburn drew a bases-loaded walk to cut the LSU lead to 4-3.
The Rebels tied the game in a crazy fifth inning. LSU appeared to get a break when Pontiff tagged out Hutchinson at third on the hidden ball trick, but the Tigers would give the Rebels an opening when they botched a pickoff attempt that would have resulted in the third out. Ole Miss then tied the
game when Heath overran Shane Smith’s double, allowing Swearingen to score and knot it at 4-4.