Ole Miss finishes off sweep of LSU in wild series finale

OXFORD – There’s a lot of SEC baseball left for Ole Miss. But the last two series have certainly shown the Rebels’ resolve, particularly given how their series against Mississippi State played out.

Redshirt sophomore Taylor Rabe held LSU hitless for the first six innings Sunday afternoon, retiring the first 11 batters of the game before issuing a two-out walk in the fourth and giving up a pair of solo home runs in the seventh. LSU rallied back from a seven-run seventh inning deficit to tie the game before junior shortstop Brayden Randle’s go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the inning capped off an 8-7 win for the No. 25 Rebels in the series finale between the teams at Swayze Field. It’s Ole Miss’ (26-11, 8-7 SEC) first sweep of the Tigers since 2022.

Sophomore designated hitter Owen Paino had four hits over the weekend, including a pair of home runs. Senior first baseman Will Furniss drove in five runs over the three games.

It’s the second straight series win for Ole Miss following a home sweep at the hands of Mississippi State two weekends ago. The Rebels took the opener and finale at Florida – the last coming in dramatic fashion with a five-run ninth inning that stunned the Gators – and a sweep against LSU (22-15, 6-9). Ole Miss has won seven of its last eight games overall.

A lot has seemingly changed since the Egg Bowl of Baseball.

“They’re all important, I know that sounds like coach's speak. I think the bigger takeaway is, we got kicked in the gut on our own field a couple weeks ago and it could have went in a different direction,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “But … credit them. I think you guys asked Furniss and other guys said, ‘No, we’re going to be fine. We have leadership and we’re going to be good.’ And to this point, that’s shown up. Those guys have played their best ball the last couple weeks. But I think that’s the biggest takeaway from that.”

Rabe surrendered back-to-back solo long balls in the seventh, part of a seven-run LSU inning that nullified what had been a seven-run Rebels lead. Four of those runs came with two outs. Rabe finished with five strikeouts over his career-high six innings of work. He made 75 pitches.

“I was feeling really good today. I wish I could have been a little bit sharper there at the end … It was a tough way to go out,” Rabe said. “But everything was working.”

The Rebels scored two runs off LSU starter Grant Fontenot in the first inning – RBI singles from Furniss and sophomore outfielder Hayden Federico – forcing the Tigers’ first pitching change after just one-third of an inning.

Junior second baseman Dom Decker launched his first home run in five weeks with two outs in the second off Gavin Guidry, a solo shot that carried into the left field stands. Ole Miss scored four runs in the fourth, which included long balls from Paino and senior outfielder Tristan Bissetta, whose home run went 462 feet and over the batter’s eye.

Derek Curiel and Cade Arrambide hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning, the only two hits Rabe allowed in the game. Sophomore Wil Libbert surrendered a solo home run to the first batter he saw and allowed the first three hitters he faced to reach. LSU scored four more runs with two outs to tie the game 7-7.

“The big thing is that we’re really close and we have a lot of belief in one another,” Decker said. “And even (when we) have a long inning in the seventh and they end up tying it up, we still went back in the dugout (and) knew we were going to win and didn’t really let it phase us.”

Federico led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, got to second on an interference call and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. With two strikes, Randle stroked a ball into shallow left to put the Rebels back in front. Ole Miss stranded the bases loaded to end the seventh and eighth innings.

Junior Hudson Calhoun pitched 1 1/3 inning in relief with one earned run allowed while sophomore Walker Hooks pitched a perfect ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts.

Ole Miss plays Southern Miss in Pearl Tuesday at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.

“(The last two weeks have) been huge. After that State series, it was tough. But I think the biggest thing is, how do you respond to that?” Rabe said. “And I think we couldn’t have responded much better going on the road and getting that win. And then playing LSU – a lot of teams can just see those three letters in the front of their jersey and be imposed. But I think we punched them right in the mouth, and they didn’t really have an answer all weekend.”