After enduring a 16-3 loss Saturday night, the No. 17 LSU baseball team could either fold or retaliate in Sunday’s rubber game.
It chose the latter.
Senior pitcher Ben Alsup tossed a masterful eight innings in the longest outing of his career, leading LSU (20-8, 3-6) to an 8-2 victory against Ole Miss (19-10, 4-5) for its first Southeastern Conference series victory of the season.
“After a night like [Saturday], it’s easy to come out flat,” said sophomore left fielder Alex Edward. “But I could have told you at about 8 o’clock in the morning that everybody that was there was ready to play.”
Freshman second baseman JaCoby Jones, junior center fielder Mikie Mahtook and junior shortstop Austin Nola combined for six RBIs and five of LSU’s 11 hits.
Mahtook nearly delivered his team-leading 11th home run of the season, driving a blast to dead-center field in the third inning which looked to have cleared the fence and ricocheted off the batter’s eye.
It was ruled an RBI triple off the top of the fence, and Nola brought Mahtook in with an RBI single in the next at-bat, increasing LSU’s lead to 6-0.
“I’m pretty sure I know what the result was or should have been,” Mahtook said. “But hey, it was a triple, and Austin did a good job of driving me in.”
Edward hit his first home run of the season on a fly ball to left field in the second inning that kept drifting and found its way into the seats.
“Everybody else was putting up good at-bats,” Edward said. “To put one up in that inning and then have the team pick us up and bust it open after that was great.”
LSU scored three runs in the first inning, one in the second and two in the third and fourth innings, putting eight runs on the board quickly.
Alsup (4-3) allowed two runs, tossed four strikeouts and had no walks through seven innings before surrendering two walks in a scoreless eighth inning.
“I got going in those first three innings, and I was rolling and I felt really good,” Alsup said. “I knew that I was going to give my team a chance to win the game.”
Junior Matty Ott closed the door in the final frame, helped in large part by Mahtook, who made an incredible diving catch in right-centerfield with two men on base to end the game.
“[Mahtook] plays the game 100 miles an hour with his hair on fire,” Mainieri said. “That’s when you love the game, when you play it that way.”
The Sunday series cap was in complete contrast to the Saturday night blowout.
LSU’s pitching staff was battered and dismantled by Ole Miss for 18 hits, equaling the most runs LSU has ever given up in a game in Mainieri’s tenure.
“If you’re around long enough, there’s going to be nights like this, and it’s tough,” Mainieri said.
Freshman starter Kevin Gausman (2-3) gave up six runs and six hits in 2 1/3 innings. It marked the second-straight weekend he pitched less than three innings in a start after pitching at least 5 2/3 innings in each of his first five starts.
“I think my confidence is down a little bit, but I’ll come back,” Gausman said. “I’ll be fine.”
The rest of the pitching staff didn’t fare much better.
Ole Miss added nine runs on eight hits in the seventh inning off sophomore Jimmy Dykstra and freshman Samuel Peterson to stretch its insurmountable lead to 16-2 before senior Daniel Bradshaw tossed the last two outs of the inning.
Junior first baseman Grant Dozar blasted a solo home run to right field and sophomore Beau Didier poked a pinch-hit single to right field for the only two LSU RBIs.
Mahtook again stole the show in Friday night’s opener, tying career highs with four hits and two home runs in a narrow 7-6 victory for LSU.
With LSU leading, 7-3, Ole Miss scored three runs in the eighth inning off freshman pitcher Ryan Eades before sophomore pitcher Kevin Berry entered and allowed just one hit in the final two innings.
Freshman pitcher Kurt McCune (5-0) turned in another solid outing, allowing just three runs in seven innings to earn the win.
 
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]