Ole Miss heads to LSU with 35-year drought at Alex Box Stadium
OXFORD | Guy Summerlin remembers a weekend in May 1982 for a different reason than what has become a bizarre, but significant, Southeastern Conference statistic.
When LSU leadoff man Billy Wiesler’s fly out finished up in Ole Miss right fielder Kenny Houser’s glove to cap off a Sunday 8-0 Rebel victory over LSU and clinch the weekend series, Summerlin and his teammates didn’t note any regard to the task of winning at Alex Box Stadium.
It was the weekend before in Starkville and the first win in Baton Rouge that were notable, as a series win at Mississippi State had given them a berth in the four-team SEC Tournament and a Saturday afternoon 3-0 shutout of LSU after losing the opener, 4-3, secured the SEC West for the Rebels.
The 1982 Ole Miss team went 32-17-1 in the regular season, and the 15-6 SEC record topped Alabama by 3.5 games. Those Rebels, coached by former Ole Miss two-sport All-American Jake Gibbs, lost back-to-back games just twice all season.
“MSU and LSU were always the places we looked forward to going because of the stadiums and atmosphere, but those had meaning for us in different ways back then,” Summerlin said. “We needed three out of six to win the SEC West, and that was the goal. The fourth one got the series, and obviously you want to win, but things had already been decided.”
Thirty-five years later, Ole Miss is without another series win in Baton Rouge.
When the Rebels (21-12, 6-6) and Tigers (23-11, 7-5) open their time together Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and continue at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday, LSU will carry a streak of 18 consecutive series wins against the Rebels in Baton Rouge.
The SEC played divisional home and away series each year through 1985 with doubleheaders on Saturday and a single game Sunday, and the two teams have alternated sites each season since then except the games were in Oxford in 1995 and 1996.
Deciphering the cause for such a streak is an impossible one. LSU was an average middling program in the early 1980s, experiencing a decade-long postseason drought when Skip Bertman was hired in 1984 and had the Tigers in a regional in 1985 before College World Series appearances five of the next six years.
So, obviously talent and the better team was the primary reason for a while, as Ole Miss had one NCAA appearance from 1977 to 1999. That 1995 Ole Miss team that won 40 games beat LSU two of three in Oxford.
David Dellucci, the Baton Rouge native and former Ole Miss All-American, was on the 1994 Ole Miss team that was swept at LSU by a total of five runs, including two one-run losses.
“It always seemed like one mistake was immediately compounded down there,” Dellucci said. “You’d be moving along well, when one thing went wrong everything turned on you. I remember there was a train at the old Alex Box that would come through late in games, and it was like that train was some eerie sign that LSU was about to do something. People sensed it.”
LSU swept Ole Miss five times in Baton Rouge from 1984 to 1997 — a stretch that Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco experienced at times as both a player and coach with the Tigers. Bianco was LSU’s catcher in 1988 and 1989 and an assistant coach under Bertman from 1993 to 1997.
Bianco’s first season in Oxford was 2001, and he’s 26-33 against his alma mater, including five series wins and two sweeps versus the Tigers at home. And he’s never been swept in Baton Rouge. The Rebels have won exactly one game of the three at Alex Box nine straight times. In four of those series Ole Miss won the opener before losing the final two games.
Bianco has a winning record against every SEC school except LSU, South Carolina (17-22) and Texas A&M (6-7).
“Certainly they are very good and have been good for a long time and are consistently good,” Bianco said. “It’s not like they are good and then have bad years. The down years are most peoples’ best years. Even with that said, and that’s obvious, the crowds are there because they’ve led the country in attendance for (21) years or something like that.
“But beyond that they are educated baseball people who really know when to cheer and take over a game. I think the opponents feel that. It’s why people love to go there. It’s a neat atmosphere but they are really good not just after they hit a home run. They take over, and the opposing pitchers feel it and opposing players feel it on defense.”
Bianco told his players of the odd streak following the Rebels’ win over Southern Miss on Tuesday.
Summerlin became aware of his team’s place in the rivalry recently. And add him to the list of people surprised by severity of the struggles for Ole Miss in that venue.
“With the quality of a program Ole Miss has had the last two decades it’s unusual,” Summerlin said. “We had some good moments and some great times, but I never thought that weekend would still be significant.”