The middle innings spelled disaster for LSU baseball on Saturday. The Tigers lost to Ole Miss, 12-2, to drop Game 2 of their series against the Rebels in a seven-inning, run-rule defeat.
The game got off to a hot start for the Tigers. The LSU offense scratched a run across in each of the first two innings.
Shortstop Steven Milam scorched a double into right to plate Derek Curiel, who reached on a walk earlier in the first to get LSU on the board in the first frame. That lead would double an inning later when first baseman Mason Braun tagged up from third to score on a sacrifice fly from left fielder Chris Stanfield.
Despite the strong foundation, the Tigers would go cold on offense while the Rebels mounted a charge in the middle three innings.
Ole Miss plated four in the fourth inning to take the lead.
A pair of walks and a wild pitch allowed third baseman Judd Utermark to reach third and later score on a sacrifice fly, then first baseman Will Furniss to come home on an RBI single from shortstop Brayden Randle to tie the game at two.
After Randle’s game-tying hit, Ole Miss would take the lead in the very next at-bat; catcher Austin Fawley deposited a home run into the stands in left-center field to score Randle and give Ole Miss a 4-2 edge.
That lead would stretch in the fifth inning, when Utermark reached on a single and later scored. Ole Miss center fielder Hayden Federico singled to left to drive Utermark in and bring the Rebels up to five in the run column.
LSU remained stagnant offensively, and the floodgates broke in the sixth. Ole Miss scored four before the first out of the inning was recorded, off the back of six straight batters reaching by walk, hit by pitch, or single.
The death-by-1000-papercuts approach from the Ole Miss offense was the story of the afternoon. The Rebels had just three extra-base hits in spite of the scoring onslaught, and did most of their damage by generating singles, of which they had six. They also had eight walks and two drawn hit-by-pitches.
A hit batter would load the bases with two outs for Ole Miss designated hitter Owen Paino. In the middle of the at-bat with the Rebels’ nine-hole batter, LSU head coach Jay Johnson turned to Mavrick Rizy. LSU used five pitchers in the sixth inning alone; it burned seven arms in Saturday’s loss.
Piano greeted Rizy with a bases-clearing double to move Ole Miss ahead, 12-2.
The LSU offense, which had its last nine batters fail to reach base from the fourth through sixth innings, had to respond in the seventh or face the mercy rule defeat.
Batters eight, nine, and one in the LSU lineup could not live up to that task. The three batters LSU sent to the plate were set down in order to push the on-baseless streak to 12 batters and bring the game to its untimely end.
LSU falls to 6-8 in conference play with the loss — its third in a row and ending the Tigers’ two-series win streak. LSU will try to salvage some sort of positive note to end the weekend in Game 3 on Sunday at 1 p.m.
