It took 4 hours 21 minutes, featured 45 hits and 34 runs, but Ole Miss can stop hearing about 1982.
The Rebels, on the strength of a Saturday 5-1 win and Sunday 19-15 10-inning thriller, took their first series over LSU in Baton Rouge in 37 years and stayed in a second place tie in the SEC West. Here are observations about the game and where the Rebels stand as of Sunday evening.
This was a good weekend for Ole Miss in the RPI ranking. The Rebels moved from No. 22 to No. 17 with six of their seven remaining games against top-10 RPI teams with Mississippi State at No. 3 and Tennessee at No. 10. Arkansas State is No. 132.
The SEC hasn't had a regional host with an RPI outside of the top 14 since 2010, so this was a necessary and tremendous win to put Ole Miss in the ballpark. All postseason projections this week will likely have Oxford as a host site.
Arkansas is in fine shape at 17-7 in the SEC, and Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in second place at 15-9 as those two teams meet at Swayze Field next for a three-game set. The Rebels likely need at least 18 conference wins for host consideration.
Paul Mainieri had the following quote on Saturday night and it's the Rebels who have that current control.
“We all could speculate on how much tomorrow’s game means,” Mainieri said Saturday. “I think it means an awful lot. There’s still games to go plus the SEC Tournament, but the winner of this series probably has the inside track on hosting a regional. This is a really, really important ballgame tomorrow.”
With a 5-1 SEC record the past two weeks, Ole Miss has again surged into the overall seed conversation. It broke one streak this weekend and now faces a State group that's 11-2 against the Rebels since 2016.
The ninth inning will get its space in a second, but Ole Miss showed a lot of mental strength to have that 10th inning. After LSU scored six runs with two outs to extend the game, the Rebels kept energy, put men on base and executed to grab momentum back. It's the most important sequence of the season to this point.
That was just a tremendous at-bat from Josh Hall, hitting it where it was pitched and coming through with the biggest situation of the day. He also steals a base and comes around. With only one at-bat, he's in the MVP of the day conversation.
Kevin Graham and Cooper Johnson set Hall up with a double and a walk, continuing the crazy day from the bottom of the order. The 5-through-9 spots (Cole Zabowski, Johnson, Graham, Jacob Adams, Hall) in the order went a combined 15-for-23 with four doubles and two home runs. Mike Bianco giving Hall the at-bat in the 10th was his best move of the day.
That ninth-inning onslaught was insane. It happened fast. The failure to get Parker Caracci out of there quicker can be debated, but it would have made sense to make a mound visit -- if any were remaining -- or at least have Johnson stall some to change the rhythm. Only the nubber past the mound was cheap out of the sequence, and LSU hit mistakes for the most part. While it's unlucky the Tigers didn't hit one more at someone, there are other ways to break things up.
Zabowski was just huge on Sunday. The four hits, including the home run and the double, set everything up for the bottom of the order. Zabowski entered the weekend third in the SEC in total bases during league play, and he may be in the midst of an All-SEC season.
Tyler Keenan is still heating up with three hits, and Grae Kessinger went 3-for-7 to run his reached-base streak to 37 games.
Ole Miss hit .484 (15-for-31) with runners on and .417 (10-for-24) with runners in scoring position on Sunday. Two overlooked stats will be the 7-for-8 on getting a runner home from third with less than two outs and the add on in the second inning. LSU kicked it around some, but Ole Miss maximized that frame. Looking back, it was huge to not let the errors go unharmed.
Houston Roth can handle situations mentally. He got the last out against Tennessee Tech in the winner's bracket game last June. He fought through the 10th today despite a couple hits. Was it a tipping point to getting extra help in the bullpen? If Roth is healthy and in form, it would be incredibly valuable for the Rebels.
