Aidan Gallardo
The No. 1 LSU Tigers (32-7, 12-5 SEC) swept Ole Miss (21-19, 3-15) in a series that really felt one-sided throughout the weekend.
Ole Miss, like many other teams in the country, had no answer for LSU center fielder Dylan Crews.
Crews was 7-for-13 (.538 BA) at the plate with seven RBI and two home runs in the three-game series against the Rebels.
Crews currently leads the nation in batting average and walks, so every time he steps up to bat, it’s expected to see him reach base one way or the other.
Left-handed pitcher Xavier Rivas got the start for the Rebels in Game 1. The first four innings were going fairly smooth for Rivas, who struck out six batters. He gave up two runs through the first four frames (one in the first and third inning), but he looked solid to start out the game.
Right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes got the start for LSU and pitched well, per usual. Going into the game, Skenes had just a 1.69 ERA with 104 strikeouts. Opponents were also batting just .150 against him. Oh, and he can throw 102 mph.
But the Rebels had a little bit of a rally going in the fourth inning.
Ole Miss had runners on first and second base with two outs. Will Furniss hit a three-run home run over the right field wall to ignite the showers in the outfield and give the Rebels a 3-2 lead.
“I’ve been struggling a little bit (as) of late,” Furniss said after the game. “So, I fixed some things and that helped me out a little bit, knowing that my work has been paying off.”
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last for long.
In the fifth inning, Rivas gave up two walks and a single to load the bases with one out for LSU third baseman Tommy White. And that’s when it went downhill, as White went on to hit a grand slam over the center field wall and give LSU a 6-3 lead.
Rivas pitched 4.1 innings and gave up four hits, six runs (five earned), three walks and struck out six. His pitch count was up to 104 and some argued that he was left in the game for too long.
Aside from the fourth inning, Ole Miss had no answer for Skenes.
In six innings, the junior pitcher gave up four hits, three earned runs, three walks and struck out 11 batters.
The Tigers ultimately defeated the Rebels 7-3 in the first game.
“The key to beating an ace is to just really make him work hard,” head coach Mike Bianco said about Skenes after the game. “Try to make him work. Try to not make it too easy. I thought we did that tonight.”
In Game 2, left-handed pitcher Hunter Elliott got the start and he looked really shaky.
This was Elliott’s first appearance since he suffered a sprained UCL after his season-opener against Delaware back on Feb. 17.
Elliott pitched one inning and gave up two hits, five earned runs, five walks and struck-out three batters.
His fastball was inconsistent. He’d throw a fastball for 92 miles per hour, and the next would dip down to 86 miles per hour.
In the first inning, Elliott gave up a two-run home run to Crews and LSU had an early 2-0 lead.
Then, in the second inning, the left-hander gave up a leadoff single and back-to-back walks to load the bases for LSU with no outs, which would force Bianco to take Elliott out of the game. Elliott’s pitch count already reached 50, which was his limit for his first game back.
Right-handed pitcher Mason Nichols replaced Elliott and struck out the first batter he faced. Crews was then up to bat, and he hit a grand slam to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead.
That’d be the only run Nichols would give up, as he pitched a couple of good innings for the Rebels.
In three innings, Nichols gave up two hits, one earned run, one walk and tallied three strikeouts.
Ole Miss would find some offense in the sixth inning.
The Rebels had runners on first and second with one out after Jacob Gonzalez hit a double and Calvin Harris drew a walk.
Kemp Alderman was at the plate and like he usually does, hit a three-run home run that traveled 453 feet over the center field wall. But unfortunately, that was the only bright spot from the offense in the game.
Other than the sixth inning, the Rebels just couldn’t get anything going with the bats and the Tigers would win the game and the series by a score of 8-4.
In Game 3, the Rebels sent out right-handed pitcher JT Quinn to get things started.
Quinn looked fairly good, but there’s nothing that gets past this LSU lineup.
In four innings, the right hander gave up 10 hits, four earned runs, two walks and a home run to Cade Beloso in the fifth inning. But, Quinn was able to rack up the strikeouts, picking up eight in his outing.
“I thought it was alright,” Quinn said about his performance. “I left too many pitches over the middle of the plate. They’re a really good team…Just can’t make that many mistakes.”
A sacrifice fly by Calvin Harris put the Rebels on the board in the first inning. Then in the second, Anthony Calarco hit a leadoff double that was followed by an RBI-single by Furniss that gave Ole Miss a 2-1 lead.
But like the other games in this series, the lead didn’t last very long.
In the third inning, LSU hit back-to-back RBI-singles by Jordan Thompson and Jared Jones to retake the lead 3-2.
Then in the fifth inning, Beloso hit a solo home run to extend the Tigers’ lead to 4-2. But Ole Miss would fight back in the sixth inning.
Harris hit a leadoff double and a couple of batters later, Calarco would hit an RBI-double to narrow LSU’s lead down to 4-3.
In the seventh inning, Alderman hit a missile over the right-center field wall to tie the game at 4-4 and increase his home run total to 17 on the year.
Calarco drew a one-out walk in the eighth inning and then Judd Utermark hit a two-run home run to give Ole Miss a 6-4 lead.
And then came the ninth inning.
With the Rebels holding on to a 6-4 lead with two outs in the ninth inning, right-handed pitcher Mitch Murrell gave up a three-run home run to Hayden Travinski that would give the Tigers the series sweep and send fans home in shock.
“Mentally and emotionally, it’s tough,” Bianco said after the game. “I think that they’ve competed. They show up every day. We’ve just got to play better.”
Ole Miss will play Mississippi State in Pearl on Tuesday, April 25 at 6 p.m. CDT.
