OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss’ Josh Christian launched a grand slam to cap a six-run rally in the bottom of the eighth as the Rebels (16-7, 2-4) won the rubber game of a three-game Southeastern Conference series with a 10-7 victory Sunday at Swayze Field.
The Tigers (15-11, 2-4) will play the final game of their five-game road trip on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Southeastern Louisiana. The Lions broke a 16-game losing streak to the Tigers with a 4-3 victory at Baton Rouge on February 12. LSU will return to SEC action Easter weekend by hosting Mississippi State.
LSU got off to a slow start in the eighth, as reliever Brad David walked pinch hitter Barry Gunther and gave up a single to Burney Hutchinson after getting Jonathan Swearingen flied out. Weylin Guidry relieved David after Shane Smith reached first on catcher’s interference by Chris Phillips.
Guidry walked in Dustin Cliburn on five pitches to cut the lead to 7-5, then Chad Sterbens lifted a sacrifice fly to medium-deep right field to score Hutchinson to cut the lead to 7-6.
Guidry then walked Drew Rogers on four pitches, and LSU coach Smoke Laval decided to bring in Brian Wilson. Christian made LSU pay for the pitching change by hitting Wilson’s 0-1 fastball over the left-center field fence to send the Rebel crowd of 3,872 into a frenzy.
LSU appeared to have the game in hand after breaking a 4-4 tie with a three-run seventh, as back-to-back singles by J.C. Holt and Wally Pontiff and a walk to Matt Heath loaded the bases for Blake Gill.
Gill lined a shot past second baseman Matt Tolbert to score Holt and Pontiff, then Heath would score when Charlie Waite let the relay throw get through to make it 7-4.
As was the case in Saturday’s 6-5 victory, LSU jumped out quickly by scoring a pair of runs in the first inning.
Holt drew a leadoff walk to open the game, then quickly was on third when Alan Horne threw away a pickoff attempt. Hill singled home Holt for the game’s first run, and Hill would score two batters later when Sean Barker laced a double to the right-center field gap.
Ole Miss took advantage of an LSU error in the first, as Jake Tompkins threw away a pickoff attempt, allowing Burney Hutchinson to take third. Sterbens would bring Hutchinson home with a base hit to center.
Hill singled and stole second to start the LSU third, and after Pontiff walked, Heath doubled into the gap where Barker had hit his double, bringing Hill and Pontiff across the plate for a 4-1 Tiger lead.
The Rebels got the two runs back in the bottom of the third on Tolbert’s two-out, two-run single, then tied the game in the sixth when Tolbert scored on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice by Smith.