Ole Miss uses four homers to even series with LSU
Published 10:12 pm Friday, April 14, 2017
Ole Miss powered its way to a series-evening win against LSU.
A night after suffering their worst loss of the season, the Rebels hit four solo home runs to back a strong start from David Parkinson in a 4-1 win Friday at Alex Box Stadium. The teams will play the rubber game Saturday at 2 p.m.
Tate Blackman led off the game with a homer to left before going deep again to start the sixth, giving Ole Miss (22-13, 7-7 Southeastern Conference) a 4-0 lead. Blackman is the first Ole Miss player with multiple home runs in a game since J.B. Woodman hit a pair against Georgia last May.
Colby Bortles and Nick Fortes each hit home runs in the fourth. Ole Miss had just six hits while Parkinson and relievers Will Ethridge and Dallas Woolfolk limited LSU (24-12, 8-6) to seven a night after the Tigers racked up 15 hits in a 15-2 win.
The homers accounted for four of the five hits the Rebels had against LSU starter Jared Poche (6-2), who struck out nine in seven innings. Poche, who began the night with a 2.32 earned run average, had allowed four home runs in his first eight starts combined.
LSU’s offense wasn’t nearly as loud against Parkinson (5-2), who scattered six hits and struck out three with the Tigers’ lone run against the junior left-hander coming on Josh Smith’s RBI single in the second to tie it at 1. Smith’s knock was LSU’s only hit in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Parkinson left with two on and one out in the seventh after 95 pitches, but Ethridge induced back-to-back groundouts from Michael Papierski and Antoine Duplantis to preserve Ole Miss’ three-run lead. A two-out error put a runner at third for LSU in the eighth, but Woolfolk came on and fanned Jordan Romero to end the threat.
Woolfolk struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth to pick up his seventh save.