BATON ROUGE, La. – Justin Bench took the very first pitch of the game deep to the wall for a leadoff double and the Rebels never looked back, finishing off a sweep of LSU at Alex Box Stadium with an 8-5 win Sunday afternoon.
It is Ole Miss' first-ever three-game road sweep of LSU. The Rebels have claimed back-to-back series victories in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1964-65.
After Derek Diamond tossed 4.1 frames in the start, Jack Washburn came on in relief for 1.1 innings, allowing one hit and one walk. John Gaddis earned the win in relief, surrendering one run over two complete innings. Brandon Johnson collected the final four outs, securing his ninth save.
Following his leadoff two-bagger, Bench moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Tim Elko's slow ground ball, giving Ole Miss a 1-0 lead after a half inning of play.
Hayden Leatherwood doubled that advantage in the second with a mammoth blast that just stayed inside the right field foul pole and Peyton Chatagnier scored later in the frame as Hayden Dunhurst reached on an error.
The Tigers pulled the Rebel lead to just one in the third, scoring a pair on Josh Pearson's two-run shot and tied the game briefly in the fourth on a solo homer by Tre' Morgan.
However, Kemp Alderman tattooed a pitch to center field, sending it over the fence to restore the Rebel lead to 5-3. Now too long after, Chatagnier cranked a two-run blast of his own into the Left Field Landing area at Skip Bertman Field, extending the Ole Miss lead to four runs.
After LSU pulled one run back in the bottom half of the fifth, the Tigers threatened to do more damage in the sixth, loading the bases with a two-out rally. However, Gaddis needed just one pitch to escape the jam, inducing a foul ball pop out to Elko.
The Rebels added another run in the eighth on a Kevin Graham single to left but LSU repaid the favor in the home half on Tyler McManus' solo home run.
The Tigers brought the tying run to the plate in both the eighth and the ninth but Johnson slammed the door each time, finishing off a picture-perfect weekend on the bayou for Ole Miss.
The Rebels return to action with the final midweek game of the season, traveling to Jonesboro, Arkansas, to take on Arkansas State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.
