Rebels sweep Tigers with walk-off win

Published 12:27 am Monday, April 26, 2010

OXFORD — Late inning heroics was the tale again for the Rebels as a pair of home runs in the eighth set up a walk-off single with the bases loaded from Kevin Mort in the ninth, as No. 19 Ole Miss (28-13, 11-7 SEC) swept No. 5 LSU (32-9, 11-7 SEC) with a 7-6 win on Sunday.

It was the second straight walk-off win for the Rebels over LSU this weekend.

Back-to-back singles from Taylor Hightower and Miles Hamblin opened the ninth for the Rebels before LSU went to its bench for defensive substitution Wet DeLatte, who was placed behind the mound as a fifth infielder. The Tigers intentionally walked Tim Ferguson to load the bases before Kevin Mort sent a fly ball to the gap in left center to drive in Hightower from third and give the Rebels the come-from-behind win.

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The sweep marks the first time LSU has been swept in a series since being swept at Tennessee in the 2008 season. That series included a pair of seven-inning games as part of a Sunday doubleheader. It’s the first time the Tigers have been swept in three-straight nine inning games since the 2007 season at Vanderbilt to close the regular season.

Brett Huber (1-0) picked up the win in relief for the Rebels as he worked 2.0 innings, entering the game with a man on first in the eighth and holding LSU to one hit with one walk and three strikeouts.

Austin Ross (3-4) suffered the loss for LSU as he gave up a run on three hits with a walk and no strikeouts. Ross entered the game to start the ninth and never recorded an out.

“Today was another great game,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “We had three great crowds, and matched it with three great games. We played well and finally got the hits that we’ve been missing. Offensively, we played more like the team we knew we could be, and pitching we were good enough to get the wins.”