OXFORD | TJ McCants pumping his fist following the 391-foot home run that just cleared the centerfield wall will be an image.

Peyton Chatagnier stirring the mostly sleepy Swayze Field crowd with an earlier home run that cut the deficit that still left some work to do will be mentioned, as well.

And, of course, the indelible image is Kemp Alderman, five days after playing in his first collegiate game, banging on his chest, trotting the bases and joining the celebratory mob with a scream and a walk-off that gave Ole Miss a 10-9 win over LSU to salvage the final game of the three-game set.

The Rebels (28-12, 10-8) trailed by eight runs with four outs remaining but engineered an improbable retaliation. But it didn’t just start in the eighth inning. A comeback of that size requires smaller moments to set up the bigger ones. Moments that don’t solve Ole Miss’ troubles but could be a springboard with four weeks left in the regular season.

“We’ll see in the future but something we needed obviously,” Mike Bianco said. “It hasn’t been a good few weeks for us and this weekend was as poorly as we’ve played this year and probably in several years.”

In the top of the fifth, Dylan Crews singled in Drew Bianco to give the Tigers a 9-1 lead. Drew McDaniel had allowed six runs and nine hits in 2.2 innings, and Austin Miller hadn’t fared better in relief. Jack Dougherty was in now, and Crews gave Dougherty an earned run, also.

Dougherty responded with a full-count strikeout of Giovanni DiGiacomo to end the inning and strand two runners. It seemed innocuous enough at the time, but Dougherty added scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh, as well, to give up one run in 3.1 frames total. Tyler Myers did the same, adding a zero in the eighth inning.

“When the game started and they looked like it was their day offensively,” Bianco said. “When Jack comes in we hadn’t put up a zero in a while, they’d scored the first five innings, and he gives us a couple zeroes and Tyler Myers comes up after being up in the pen all weekend waiting on an opportunity.”

The seventh inning seemed like Ole Miss’ best chance at the time to make a game of it, and it seemed to be the final missed opportunity in a weekend of woeful at-bats with runners in scoring position.

The Rebels loaded the bases with no outs but didn’t score despite having Kevin Graham, Hayden Dunhurst and Justin Bench at the plate. Foul out. Strikeout. Fly out.

"You have to give us credit because it was a bad moment, bad time there,” Bianco said. “We had bases loaded with no outs and our best hitters up and we can’t scratch a run.”

Also in the seventh inning, Alderman entered the game for Hayden Leatherwood in right field. Leatherwood, still reeling from a collision with McCants on Thursday night, struggled to move in the field or on the bases.

“We’re down 9-1 and it’s a chance for him to get a couple at-bats,” Bianco said. “That’s how he got into the game. We’ll run him out there and little did we know he’d be batting in the bottom of the ninth with score tied.”

A snapshot three batters into the home half of the eighth inning wouldn’t have shown anything close to a comeback. It was still 9-1 with TJ McCants on first base and two outs. Cael Baker had struck out and Alderman flied out on the first pitch. LSU had misplayed a pop up for McCants to reach.

Ben Van Cleve walked on a full count and Jacob Gonzalez singled in McCants.

9-2.

Then, Chatagnier, also on a full count, hammered an offering over the left field wall.

9-5.

The stadium perked up, and closer Taylor Broadway moved from the dugout to the bullpen to begin tossing. It wasn’t a Bianco premonition. It did turn out, though to be a serendipitous decision.

"We were going to bring in (Cody) Adcock just to get him an inning when it was still 9-1 but at 9-5 I was going to bring Broadway in,” Bianco said. “We knew he could give us an inning or maybe two and we’d use that inning now. If we keep it at 9-5, maybe we have a shot, couple guys on and wind blowing out.

“We couldn’t give up more runs… it looked smart but he was coming in at 9-5. I’m sure some people would have said something about using he closer at 9-5 and what I was doing, but I’m glad he was loose and ready to go.”

Graham followed Chatagnier with a single, and Hayden Dunhurst took a scary hit by pitch, moving to first base after staying on the ground for more than a minute.

Bench walked to load the bases, taking a pitch that just missed. The relieved sighs echoed through the park as he trotted to first to load the bases.

McCants squared up the first pitch he saw for this second hit of the inning and by far the more celebrated one. The ball seemed to hang in the air but continued to carry and moved just beyond the wall, falling in front of the batter’s eye.

9-9.

“Once the dugout and the players start to lose a sense of energy in the game, you start to feel like you’ve already lost,” McCants said. “When we keep our energy high, we feel like we still have a chance and it’s never over until the last out.”

Bianco said: "To set things up for McCants after Chatagnier had hit the home run, that’s a credit to the offense. To get the big hit, set it up and get another one.”

Paul Mainieri was ejected immediately after McCants' home run, apparently arguing the ball four call that put Bench on.

Broadway allowed a one-out double in the ninth but that was it, punctuating the inning with back-to-back strikeouts.

Alderman was first up in the bottom of the ninth.

The opposite-field missile left the bat at 110 MPH and traveled 421 feet. It was the first pitch, and he didn’t miss it. The celebration went from home plate to the outfield, Alderman losing his jersey somewhere in the scrum.

10-9.

“Fastball, middle away,” Alderman said. “I knew it was gone and I blacked out after that. It was a crazy feeling, one I will never forget… They were hitting me really hard but I didn’t feel pain because I couldn’t feel my body at the time. It was an awesome experience.”

Bianco didn’t see Alderman’s home run land, but he got caught up in the celebration and shared an embrace with his freshman once he reached home plate.

“We got Kemp leading off and I’m talking to Van Cleve because we don’t bunt a lot and don’t bunt great, but Van Cleve is our best bunter,” Bianco said. “I told him that If we can get Kemp to second base we’re going to bunt. We’re going to run Plumlee for Kemp if he gets on, and I’ve got Plumlee in and we’re drawing up a play and since he’s a football guy you have to talk to him in those terms.

“As I’m talking to Plumlee, I hear the crack of the bat and see the ball go up and I don’t follow the ball. I see Kemp doing his thing at the dugout. I didn’t really see it. I’m eager to see it on social media.”