BATON ROUGE — LSU first baseman Clay Harris collected his second two home run game this season and knocked in a season and career high six runs as the Fighting Tigers cruised past Ole Miss, 13-5, in the rubber match of a three-game Southeastern Conference series on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
LSU (24-11-1, 11-3-1) kept two series streaks alive with the win, claiming their ninth consecutive league series dating back to last April, one shy of the Tigers’ school record of 10 achieved in 1985 and 1986.
The Tigers (No. 8 Collegiate Baseball, No. 11 Baseball America, No. 13 ESPN/USA Today) also won their 12th consecutive series in Baton Rouge over Ole Miss (21-14, 8-7) dating back to 1982. The Rebels are just 6-32 at Alex Box Stadium since 1983.
The Tigers return to action on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. when they host in-state archrival Tulane in the 273rd meeting in what is the oldest intercollegiate athletic rivalry for both schools. LSU looks to win its 10th consecutive SEC series next weekend at Vanderbilt.
Harris, a sophomore from Slidell who was a 2002 freshman All-American as a pitcher, gave LSU a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a three-run homer off the billboard in right field. He later added an RBI single in the third and a two-run homer in the fifth, becoming the first LSU player this season to drive in more than four runs. The last LSU player to drive in six runs in a game was Blake Gill who did so last April 14 against Georgia.
Harris is now tied for the team lead with Jon Zeringue with eight home runs, and although his .398 average is the highest on the Tigers, Harris is two at-bats shy of having the needed 2.5 at bats per game required to qualify for the batting title.
Harris’ big day was more than enough support for LSU starting pitcher Nate Bumstead, who won his fourth consecutive start, all in Sunday SEC games, to improve to 5-1 on the year, becoming the third Tiger hurler to win five games. Bumstead struck out a season and career high 10 batters and yielded the Rebels only three hits in eight innings. Bumstead is the second LSU pitcher to fan 10 or more in a game this year, joining Bo Pettit’s 10 strikeouts at Georgia on March 22.
Ole Miss scored its first run in the top of the second on a leadoff home run by Brian Pettway, but LSU immediately answered in the bottom of the second on Bruce Sprowl’s RBI single. The Tigers expanded the lead to 6-1 in the third on Harris’ single and a double play ground ball with the bases loaded by Quinn Stewart.
The Tigers finished the afternoon with 17 hits, two shy of the season high of 19 achieved on February 11 at Centenary. Ten of the 11 LSU players who got to the plate collected a hit, with Aaron Hill collecting his fourth three-hit game in his last five outings to raise his season average to .385, going 3-for-4 with four runs scored.
Eric Fowler, the Rebels’ starting pitcher, was removed after giving up Harris’ second home run, yielding eight runs (six earned) on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. Ole Miss came into the weekend second in the SEC in ERA at 2.66, but following a 7-2 win on Friday, the Rebels yielded 27 runs on 33 hits the series final two games.
LSU scored in double figures for the seventh time in 15 SEC games this season after scoring 10 or more in conference games four times in 2002 and six times in 2001.
The Rebels made the final score more respectable by scoring three runs in the ninth off of LSU reliever Jordan Faircloth.
Ole Miss (21-14, 8-7) 010 010 003– 5 7 1
LSU (24-11-1, 11-3-1) 312 022 03x– 13 17 0
Eric Fowler, Brae Wright (5), Adam Yates (7), Taylor Fowler (8). and Charlie Waite; Nate Bumstead, Jordan Faircloth (9), Greg Smith (9) and Matt Liuzza, Shawn French (9).
WP-Bumstead, 5-1.
LP-Fowler, 1-2.
2B-LSU: Aaron Hill (14), Ivan Naccarata (6).
HR-Ole Miss; Brian Pettway (5) LSU: Clay Harris 2 (8).
T-2:38.
A-7,682 (paid); 4,143 (actual).