HOOVER, Alabama — With Mason Nichols on the shelf for at least this week due to an oblique strain, Ole Miss had to dig a little deeper into its pitching arsenal Saturday in the semifinal round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Hunter Elliott beat Florida on Thursday and Riley Maddox handled Arkansas on Friday.
With a rowdy LSU crowd and a rested Tigers lineup ready to feast on an inexperienced arm, Ole Miss turned to freshman right-hander Cade Townsend.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pounder from Aliso Viejo, California, more than answered the bell, leading the way in an impressive pitching performance that helped Ole Miss to a 2-0 win over the Tigers.
"The story of the game was us on the mound," Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. "In this environment, which is different than a lot of places, it was loud today and for Cade to perform like that, his best outing of the year. We tried to prime him for that, a lot of midweek starts, but nothing like that today."
Ole Miss improved to 40-18 with the win, essentially ending any debate about the Rebels' NCAA Tournament destination. The program will receive one of 16 host site bids on Sunday and host a four-team regional next weekend in Oxford. Ole Miss' RPI improved to 10 by late Saturday afternoon.
LSU (43-14) will also host a regional next weekend in Baton Rouge, and the Tigers are a likely national top-eight seed.
Townsend, making just his seventh start and 14th appearance of the season, entered Saturday’s semifinal with a 6.67 earned run average over 28.1 innings pitched.
All he did against LSU’s explosive offense is shut it down during two trips through the lineup. Townsend went 4.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and walking three while striking out three while using a fairly economical 74 pitches.
He rarely ran into any real trouble. In the third inning, LSU got consecutive singles from Cade Arrambide and Chris Stanfield to turn the lineup over with one out. Townsend answered by striking out leadoff man Derek Curiel and induced a fly ball to center fielder Isaac Humphrey from Jared Jones to end the threat.
"He had a good heater, upper 90s and obviously a low-90s slider," Jones said. "It's kind of one-speed hitting. We didn't do a very good job of separating pitches today. We kind of let him off the hook a few times on three-ball counts. That doesn't lead to a lot of success."
In the fourth, Townsend hit Daniel Dickinson to lead off the inning, but one out later, catcher Austin Fawley caught Dickinson trying to steal second base.
In the fifth, Townsend walked Stanfield with two outs, marking the end of his day. Gunnar Dennis (4-1) relieved Townsend and got a fly ball to left fielder Mitchell Sanford from Curiel to end the frame.
Spencer rooms with Townsend on the road, an odd combination that pairs a 24-year-old veteran with a freshman. He said he "almost feel like I'm his big brother," dispensing advice when it's fitting.
"I've seen it in him since the first day that I met him," Spencer said. "He's always been one of my favorite little freshmen. He's a really good dude and a real competitor too."
Bianco said the SEC is tough for a freshman, especially for someone who carries high expectations like Townsend does. Bianco said it's usually just an inning here and there that has hurt Townsend. On Saturday, however, he remained locked in.
"Can you make a pitch and get off the field?" Bianco said. "He did that a couple of times today in a big environment, a tough environment. For that, we're really proud of him because that's the growth you're seeing. He's the guy that you expect one day he's going to be a weekend starter, a Friday night starter, in the Southeastern Conference."
Ole Miss’ offense was sparse against a talented LSU pitching staff, but the Rebels did enough. LSU legacy Will Furniss got Ole Miss on the board in the first inning with a solo home run, his 10th of the season.
"I was sitting fastball but he threw me a hanging slider," Furniss said. "He left it over the plate and I just honestly tried to hit it hard. I didn't think it was going to get out today because of the wind but somehow it got out."
In the fourth inning, Ole Miss punished LSU for a defensive mistake. Humphrey singled with one out and advanced to second base on an errant pickoff attempt by LSU starter Jaden Noot (2-1). Campbell Smithwick followed with a single, scoring Humphrey from second base and extending Ole Miss’ lead to 2-0.
Dennis, Will McCausland and Spencer were brilliant over the final 4.1 innings, never allowing LSU to mount a threat. The trio of relievers didn’t allow a hit and walked two Tigers while striking out five. Spencer walked Ethan Frey with two outs in the ninth before getting pinch-hitter Josh Pearson to fly out to Humphrey to end the game.
"It's awesome. Those are really the kind of moments I live for as a closer," Spencer said. "That's kind of where I thrive."
"The two guys in the middle were special," Bianco said, referring to Dennis and McCausland. "We were hopeful to get Townsend four or five, handle some adversity and not go too quick to the pen, but we wanted to go left-handed after that and kind of switch it up a little bit. We obviously wanted to go to a veteran guy like Dennis, and I thought he was terrific."
It marked the first time LSU has been shut out since Arkansas blanked them in 2022. It was Spencer’s seventh save of the season and his third this week in Hoover.
Ole Miss will face Vanderbilt in Sunday’s championship game. The Commodores run-ruled Tennessee, 10-0, earlier Saturday. The SEC moved up first pitch Sunday two hours to noon due to expected inclement weather in the Birmingham area.
Ole Miss last won the SEC Tournament in 2018. Vanderbilt last won in 2023.
