OXFORD | There was a moment when Ole Miss had the momentum and the moment that seemed like, just maybe, a spark to try to reassemble its season.

Will Furniss, son of LSU legend Eddy Furniss, hit a 1-2 Paul Skenes fastball over the right-center wall. The light show blinked and the music blared, and the Rebels had a one-run lead in the fourth inning against the future top-five pick.

"It felt great in the moment, and I was hoping to give our team confidence," Furniss said.

It ignited the crowd that waited out the two-hour delayed start time, but it was short-lived, as the Tigers got it all back and more in the next half inning.

Tommy White, a North Carolina State transfer, hit a grand slam off Xavier Rivas in the fifth inning, carrying LSU to a 7-3 win to start the series and drop the Rebels to 21-17 overall and 3-13 in the SEC. LSU is 30-7 and 10-5.

Hunter Elliott makes his first start since February 17 when the series resumes at 2 p.m. on Saturday. He's expected to throw around 50 pitches.

The top of the fifth spoiled an excellent effort from Rivas in his first Friday night appearance. He allowed four hits and six runs — five earned — in 4.1 innings but deserved better than the box score.

Kemp Alderman misplayed a fly ball that turned into a Dylan Crews triple and a run after a Jacob Gonzalez error in the first inning, and he lost steam when he gave up a walk, a single and a walk in three straight batters before White’s home run.

"I know it's frustrating, but a couple things go through your mind," Bianco said of leaving Rivas in to face White. "I wanted the lefty to see the middle of the lineup. Their splits are a lot different, White's are almost 250 points to the good with a left-hander pitcher, but it didn't look like that... And he's your ace. I knew he was losing it, but he was losing it in the fifth, and we needed some length.

"White made us pay. That was his last inning, but I wanted him to get through White. Obviously he didn't."

Ole Miss, compared to other teams this season, did a nice job against Skenes and his 100 MPH fastball. His 117th and final pitch was 97 MPH.

He went just six innings and gave up four hits and the three runs on Furniss’ home run. The Air Force transfer struck out 11 and walked three. Ethan Lege had two of Ole Miss’ four hits.

"He's so good, and if you asked him, he'd probably say he had an off night," Bianco said. of Skenes. "An off night and we got four hits. Beating an ace is about working hard and running the pitch count up. You knew he'd strike people out, don't get frustrated with it."

Ole Miss seemed to be bringing the tying run to the plate in the eighth before a mental miscue ended the threat. After Jacob Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and Alderman walked, Lege reached on an error, which seemed to load the bases.

But Alderman tried to go first to third, running to a base Gonzalez occupied. LSU got the final out on the ensuing rundown.

Ole Miss had three errors on the night.

"To win you have to play defense and make plays and we continue to not do that," Bianco said. "We didn't make plays that would have helped Rivas and made it a different game."

Brayden Jones was productive out of the bullpen, yielding one run and three hits in 4.2 innings. He struck out six of the 20 batters faced and walked two hitters.

Ole Miss was 2-for-13 with runners on and LSU was 3-for-15 in the same category. The top five spots in the Rebel order were a combined 1-for-16. Alderman had the one hit.