Ole Miss Takes First Two, Including Run Rule Over LSU
David Billiot Jr • April 12, 2026
Ugly. Brutal. Lifeless. Just three words that can describe the first two games of the series for LSU. Despite taking a 2-0 lead in both games, they’ve held the lead in only 5 of the 18 innings so far in Oxford. As it has been all year, their issue is the inability to stop the train from going completely off of the tracks. When one thing goes wrong, it’s typically followed with another wrong…or four. While pitching has been great for the past three weeks of SEC play, it was the hitting or defense that let them down. This weekend, all three aspects have been flat out putrid. Outside of Casan Evans, almost every pitcher that has taken the mound for the Tigers has struggled to get outs. Although it wasn’t always on the pitcher like in Zac Cowan’s case, it’s been nothing but bad for the most part. Bad can’t even describe the defense. The better word for that is atrocious.
Speaking of atrocious, that’s also a good way to describe LSU’s situational hitting. No matter what the situation is, if it’s a key moment, the Tigers simply can not find a big swing. They have been incapable of stringing together multiple hits on a consistent basis. Even if you go back through the back-to-back series wins over Kentucky and Tennessee, almost all of the big moments have come off of homeruns. Game 3 against Kentucky, John Pearson’s grand slam and Seth Dardar’s 3-run homerun were what flipped that game on it’s head. Game 1 against Tennessee, it took a trio of walks from one of the best Volunteer pitchers to lead to the grand slam by Derek Curiel. On Sunday, it was a bunch of solo homeruns and then the grand slam by Cade Arrambide until the dam finally broke loose for the Tiger offense in extra innings. They have just failed game after game of being able to score runs with simple base hits. Homeruns are great, but when they don’t come, the production looks a lot like it has on Friday and Saturday against Ole Miss.
Game 1 (Ole Miss – 6, LSU – 3)
Pitching
As good as Casan Evans has been at times this year, his starts are rarely clean from start to finish. The next step in his progression is avoiding a big inning every time out. Even if it only ends up being 2 or 3 runs, he’s prone to a 30+ pitch inning from time to time and it limits his ability to get even deeper in to games. This week, it was the first inning. After Jake Brown’s 2-run homerun gave LSU an immediate lead, Ole Miss answered right back by stringing together four singles in the first six batters of the game. Just like that, the game was tied at 2-2. Evans was able to strike out the final two hitters of the 1st. He gave up a leadoff homerun to start the 2nd, but that’s where he finally started to settle in. After a ground out, he struck out the final two hitters for the second time in a row, but his pitch count was already at 55. To start the 3rd, Evans issued a leadoff walk, but a beautifully turned double play by Steven Milam and Seth Dardar quickly erased it, followed by a 1-pitch lineout to left field. He cruised through the 4th and 5th innings by going 6-up, 6-down, including 3 strikeouts. After a 1-out hit by pitch, LSU’s ace was able to record his 9th and final strikeout, followed by a groundout to end the 6th and close his outing. As he did against Kentucky two weeks ago, he battled through a tough start to stretch through 6 innings of work and save what would have been disastrous if Jay Johnson had to go to his bullpen any earlier, especially considering Sundays are a bullpen game with Cooper Moore out. Evans did what he always does and battled.
- Final line: 6.0 IP / 5 hits / 3 runs / 9 Ks / 2 BBs / 107 pitches (63 strikes, 59%)
After LSU tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the 7th, Jay pulled the trigger on bringing Zac Cowan in. The senior has been the best pitcher on the staff in SEC play, so the hope was to allow him to close out the game while his offense grabbed a lead. After a quick 1-2-3 inning, the plan was moving along swimmingly. But, some horrendous defense and mental mistakes on the infield led to Jay’s worst nightmare. Using Cowan in a losing effort would be catastrophic and that’s exactly what happened. A ball off of the end of the bat would drop in to right field with the bases loaded and no outs, giving Ole Miss the one run lead. A squeeze attempt would follow, in which more bad defense prevented the Tigers from getting a single out. A sacrifice fly immediately followed and just like that, the Rebels were up 6-3. With 32 pitches, Jay would come out to get Cowan with the hopes of some preservation for Sunday. Cowan executed pitch after pitch, but was severely let down by the rest of his team.
- Final line: 1.2 IP / 4 hits / 3 runs (1 earned) / 1 K / 0 BB / 32 pitches (21 strikes, 66%)
Connor Benge came in to record a strikeout to end the 8th and that would be all, as the Rebels wouldn’t hit in the 9th.
- Final line: 0.1 IP / 0 hits / 0 runs / 1 K / 0 BB / 3 pitches (3 strikes, 100%)
Hitting
Mason Braun made his first SEC start at 1st base and delivered, for the most part. I say “for the most part”, because his third and final hit of the game led off in the 8th inning when the game was still tied, but he got caught napping with his lead off of 1st base and got picked off. It was an inexcusable freshman mistake, but that was his only blemish. He went 3-4, including a double, with all of his hits coming off of top conference left-handed arms. His defense at 1st base also looked good, including a great stretch on the double play ball.
Omar Serna returned from his injury last Sunday in Knoxville and delivered. He finished 2-4.
Chris Stanfield moved back up to the leadoff spot and delivered great at bats all night. While he finished 1-3 with a run scored, he also walked twice and was one of the few Tigers that was competitive on a night in which LSU struck out 11 times.
The biggest swing of the night was the one from Jake Brown when he launched a 2-run bomb in to the Ole Miss student section in the 1st inning. The rest of his night was subpar, though, finishing 1-5 with those 2 RBI and his run scored.
Game 2 (Ole Miss – 12, LSU – 2)
Pitching
William Schmidt looked fantastic early, striking out both Bissetta and Utermark in the 1st on some nasty pitches. He walked two in the 2nd, but struck out the side to prevent anything from happening. The sophomore got right back to dealing in the 3rd, striking out another two. Through 3 innings, he had already racked up 7 strikeouts. Schmidt hit a brick wall in the 4th, though. After back-to-back walks and a couple of wild pitches to start the inning, Ole Miss was set up with runners on 1st and 3rd and no outs. A sacrifice fly would bring in a runner to make it a 2-1 game, but the Rebels had just scored a run without recording a single hit. After a groundout back to the pitcher, he finally gave up his first hit on a single that tied the game at 2-2. The very next batter blasted a 2-run homerun to left-center, followed up by a double, and in the blink of an eye, Schmidt’s day was one and the Tigers were down 4-2. Despite the fact that he was squeezed by the home plate umpire, he did a poor job of composing himself. He let his frustrations get to him and it affected his performance. Saturday will have to be a learning moment for Schmidt, especially with such a bright future.
- Final line: 3.2 IP / 3 hits / 4 runs / 7 Ks / 4 BBs / 85 pitches (50 strikes, 59%)
Cooper Williams entered the game with 2 outs in the 4th, but promptly walked the first batter he faced on 5 pitches. He was able to record a groundout on the next guy, preventing further damage and stranding two runners. His trouble would come in the 5th, though, as he gave up a single and hit a batter to start the inning. A single would drive home another run for Ole Miss to make it a 5-2 game. Williams would get a strikeout and a lineout, but that would be all for the sophomore. It’s been a frustrating season for the lefty, as he’s been unable to showcase the talent that was on display in 2025 as a true freshman.
- Final line: 1.0 IP / 2 hits / 1 run / 1 K / 1 BB / 28 pitches (14 strikes, 50%)
Zion Theophilus entered and struck out the final hitter in the 5th. He returned for the 6th, but a walk and single to start the inning would put runners on 1st and 3rd and that would be the end of his day. The freshman has flashed some promise, even as recent as Tuesday, but not on Saturday.
- Final line: 0.1 IP / 1 hit / 2 runs / 1 K / 1 BB / (11 pitches (6 strikes, 55%)
Danny Lachenmayer had been called upon three times in a span of four days between game 1 vs Kentucky and game 1 vs Tennessee over the past few weeks. In each of those appearances, he came in and did his job. It’s all been downhill since then, though. He entered on Saturday and immediately threw a wild pitch, scoring one. He then hit Bissetta, which now marks the third straight game going back to Sunday that he has come in and hit a batter and failed to record an out. That’s magnified when his singular role on this team is matchup specialist vs left handed hitters. Lachenmayer is likely out of favor with Jay Johnson at this point.
- Final line: 0.0 IP / 0 hits / 1 run / 0 K / 1 HBP / 6 pitches (3 strikes, 50%)
Connor Benge entered and only remained for one batter, as well. He executed a pretty good pitch and got a weak ground ball, but it somehow found it’s way through the left side of the infield, despite the shift.
- Final line: 0.0 IP / 1 hit / 1 run / 0 Ks / 0 BBs / 4 pitches (2 strikes, 50%)
It was Ethan Plog’s turn to take over as the fourth pitcher of the inning and LSU had yet to record an out. With runners on 2nd and 3rd, Will Furniss singled to drive home two more runs to make it 9-2. After a walk, the Tigers finally got their first out with a strikeout, which was followed by a groundout. A 2-out walk would load the bases and that’s where Plog’s day would end. After a pretty good stretch of appearances a few weeks ago, it has just not looked the same for the transfer LHP.
- Final line: 0.2 IP / 1 hit / 3 runs / 1 K / 2 BB / 23 pitches (10 strikes, 43%)
With the bases loaded and Ole Miss one swing away from putting themselves in position for the 10-run rule, Jay called upon Mavrick Rizy. He leads the team in appearances, but his performances have been subpar recently, which is why a guy like him that has been called upon in massive moments was being brought in down 7 runs. Not only was it eye-opening because Rizy was being used with the deficit, but when you factor in that tomorrow is going to be a bullpen game and LSU will need all hands on deck, the decision to bring him in shows that the staff’s trust level has dropped with the big sophomore. The pattern would continue, as Paino lined a double to left-center, clearing the bases and pushing the Rebels lead to 12-2. A lineout would mercifully end the inning. Typically, Rizy’s issue is not being able to throw strikes and issuing free passes, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday.
- Final line: 0.1 IP / 1 hit / 0 runs / 0 Ks / 0 BBs / 13 pitches (8 strikes, 62%)
Hitting
For the second straight day, Mason Braun was one of the only bright spots offensively. He brought his weekend hit count up to 5, by going 2-3 and scoring a run.
Steven Milam was the only other Tiger with multiple hits. His 1st inning double brought home the opening run of the game. He’d add a single later and finish 2-3 with the RBI.
The only other Tiger of note on the offensive side was Omar Serna, who finished 1-3 with a double. That was his second double of the weekend.
Up Next
LSU will look to salvage game 3 of the series on Sunday, as Ole Miss looks to bury them with a sweep. First pitch is for 1:30 pm central. Grant Fontenot is the scheduled starter for the Tigers and will likely get the ball, but keep in mind that Jay Johnson chose to start him last week after listing Gavin Guidry as starter. Guidry, Deven Sheerin, and Santiago Garcia will be available behind Fontenot, while completely fresh.
Ole Miss will send RHP Taylor Rabe to the mound for his 3rd start of the season. The redshirt sophomore enters with a record of 3-1 with a 3.20 ERA through 25.1 innings pitched. He has struck out 32 hitters this season with only 4 walks and holds a batting average against of .229.
Follow me on X for much more @DCBilliotJr
A quick share helps us a lot!
LSU heads on the road for their second SEC game of the season. Their first trip ended in a 32-24 loss in Oxford to Ole Miss, but this game against Kentucky has significantly less big game connections. While there is a lot of influence involving a lot of former LSU influence, it’s certainly not the grand affair that we saw in week 3. The Tigers come in as the #10 team in both the AP and Coaches polls with their record of 4-1 (1-1 SEC). They jumped back in to the top-10 following Florida’s blowout loss at Missouri, which plummeted the Gators in the polls. Kentucky also comes in at 4-1 (2-1 SEC) having beat Texas A&M and South Carolina for their two conference wins. They’re ranked #24 in the Coaches Poll, but dropped two spots from #24 to unranked in the AP, despite their road overtime win over the Gamecocks. LSU offense vs. Kentucky defense Both sides of the ball are fairly large mismatches for the Tigers, at least on paper. LSU comes in with the 3rd ranked total offense in the entire country, averaging 547.8 yards per game. That’s #1 in the SEC. Their 43.6 points per game ranks 9th in the country, 4th in the SEC. It’s been a struggle-fest at times for the Wildcat defense. Jay Bateman is in his first season as Kentucky defensive coordinator after coming over from Mike Elko’s staff in College Station. They are allowing 376.6 yards per game, which ranks 92nd in the country and 13th in the SEC. They’ve given up a lot of points at 26.8 per game, which is 101st in the country and 13th in the conference. Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr’s offense has moved the ball both through the air and on the ground. They average 310.2 yards per game passing and a whopping 237.6 yards rushing per game, which is music to LSU fans’ ears after the struggles to run the ball under Brian Kelly and former OC, Joe Sloan. Both of those numbers are top-15 in the entire country and rank 2nd and 3rd in the conference, respectively. Bateman’s 4-2-5 defense are ranked 13th against both the pass and run, allowing 232.4 yards per game through the air and 144.2 yards on the ground. They also allow 20.8 first downs per game, which is 105th in the entire country and that makes them vulnerable against a Kiffin team that is picking up 28.2 per game, 2nd most in the country. The biggest advantage that LSU’s offense will have is their 3rd down offense against Kentucky’s 3rd down defense. The Tigers are #2 in the SEC, converting 3rd downs at a 51.9% rate. On the other side, the Wildcats are near the very bottom in all of Division 1, allowing a 45.9% rate for opposing offenses on 3rd down. They’re ranked 122nd out of 138 teams, which is last in the SEC, clearly. Not being able to get off of the field against a Kiffin/Weis offense is probably a death sentence. Offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis Jr, is a mastermind at designing plays and calling them at the right time. He helps guide LSU to enough success as it is, so squaring off against a defense that’s so susceptible is great for the purple and gold. Look for less big shots down the field early and for LSU to attack the Kentucky defense with short, quick pass plays to mix in with the run. The goal could be to get to 3rd and short, knowing you’re better at converting those opportunities. I would expect a lot of Dilin Jones and even Harlem Berry after his performance the last two weeks. The main thing that the offense has to do is protect the ball. The Wildcats best advantage is how often they turn opposing offenses over, averaging 2.0 per game, which is 15th in the country. We’ve seen Sam Leavitt’s struggles with protecting the ball at times, so this will have to be his cleanest game in that area to secure the first LSU road SEC win of the season. LSU defense vs. Kentucky offense Blake Baker and his unit have been masterful. There’s no other way to put it. They rank 2nd in the country and 1st in the SEC, allowing just 220.6 yards per game. Their 15.2 points allowed per game is 15th overall and 3rd in the conference.They’re at the top in 1st downs given up with just 11.6 per game and are 2nd in the country with their 22 sacks. Kentucky’s offense has been improving fairly rapidly, especially from what we saw in years past under Mark Stoops. Former Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein is in his first year as head coach for the Wildcats and has them ranked 54th in the country and 9th in the SEC with 416.8 yards per game. Their 34.6 points per game is 49th overall, 10th in the SEC. The aforementioned Joe Sloan is now in Lexington as the offensive coordinator, but it’s Stein’s offense and he’s calling the plays. Baker’s unit ranks 2nd in the SEC against both the pass and the run. LSU allows 162.2 yards through the air and just 58.4 on the ground per game, which are both absurd numbers. Especially the opposing rushing numbers. Princewill Umanmielen leads the country with his 8 sacks with freshman Deuce Geralds not far behind at 5 and quickly chasing down Harold Perkins Jr’s freshman record. While improved, neither of Kentucky’s attacks on offense jump off of the page. They’re picking up 229.6 yards per game through the air and 187.2 yards on the ground, which are 11th and 6th in the conference, respectively. Their rushing offense is definitely their best, having multiple running backs with over 300 yard rushing through 5 games. CJ Baxter is their go-to with 5.3 yards per carry, but they also love Jason Patterson who has a whopping 7.9 ypc. The other names to remember with the LSU connections is Kenny Darby and Nic Anderson. Darby is a true freshman, who was a long-time commit to the Tigers with Brian Kelly. When Kiffin took over, Corey Barber Jr flipped from Ole Miss to LSU and that seemingly took Darby’s spot, forcing him to follow Sloan to Kentucky. He leads the team with 25 receptions for 322 yards and 3 touchdowns. Anderson was a Tiger last year and while he has a modest 9 receptions for 120 yards and a touchdown, he’ll certainly be motivated. The other two guys to watch in Stein’s offense are tight ends Willie Rodriguez and Henry Boyer. They have a combined 30 receptions for 310 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Wildcats love to use both. Final prediction While Kentucky has played well, pulling the massive road upset at Texas A&M as 17-point underdogs, I still have a hard time seeing them matchup against this LSU team. The Tigers offense is starting to hum, especially on the ground, which is what Kiffin loves to do. I believe that the 3rd down matchup on that side of the ball will tell the tale of this game. If the conversion rates look similar to what they do heading in to the game, the Tigers could run away with it. On the other side, quarterback Kenny Minchey has looked solid. His 11/1 touchdown to interception ratio is really good, but he’s been sacked 11 times. Against the 2nd best pass rush in the country, that could spell doom for the Wildcat offense, making it hard for them to hold on to the ball as their defense struggles to get off of the field. LSU - 31 Kentucky - 13
Well the Saints are at the first major inflection point in their season. Currently sitting at 1-3 in the standings the Saints face a must win game on Sunday against the 4-0 Minnesota Vikings. The Saints cannot afford to fall to 1-4 on the season if they wish to maintain their postseason aspirations. The Vikings however will be a tough matchup for the Saints as they have a phenomenal defensive unit coached by Brian Flores. Flores will do his best to stymie the Saints offense by calling exotic coverages and blitzes to attack the Saints weaknesses on offense. On offense the Saints could be without Kamara so the running back snaps will be worth monitoring throughout the game. Which is unfortunate because the Saints desperately need to figure out how to get the ground game going early in games so they can get off to better starts on offense. The Saints have also been downplaying a possible injury to Olave throughout this week as he had a rest day Wednesday and was limited on Thursday so he is worth monitoring during the game to see if he is being negatively impacted. Regardless of the injury situation the Saints have to find a way to start the games better before they fall any deeper into a hole in the standings. The offense cannot only be productive when playing from behind and forcing Tyler Shough to shoulder everything himself. Even then the protection gameplan needs to be better for Shough as he has been taking too many hits in the first quarter of the season. Kellen Moore and his staff have not met expectations in this regard yet and time is running out for them to solve these issues. We’ll see what they come up with this weekend. On defense the Saints will still be missing Kaden Ellis which is a major blow as the defense looks to rebound after their abysmal performance against the Atlanta Falcons. On the bright side the Saints could be getting linebacker Jaylan Ford back from injured reserve so the absence of Kaden Ellis could be lessened with Ford’s return. However there are still injury questions with Julian Blackmon, Christen Miller, Micheal Reid as well as the loss of Anfernee Jennings who was ruled out. Depth of the defensive side of the ball could be tested for the second straight game for the Saints. Even with these injury concerns it will be paramount for the Saints defense to have a great game on Sunday with the offense facing a major battle against the Vikings defense. If the defense can start off the game strong and build some momentum for themselves it could go a long way in winning this game against the Vikings. The special teams in this game against the Vikings could play a pivotal role as the starting field position for both teams could play a major factor in how both these teams score. With how good the Vikings defense has been the Saints would stand to greatly benefit from good field position. There is an injury question with returner Barion Brown so if he is unable to go the return game could be negatively impacted. Ryan Wright could give the defense a little help by helping pin the Vikings offense deep in their own territory throughout the game. The Saints will need all three phases to do their part against the Vikings in order to turn their season around on Sunday. Let’s see if they can flip the script. Saints Injury Report Julian Blackmon (S) - Questionable Kaden Elliss (LB) - Out Jaylan Ford (LB) - Questionable Christen Miller (DT) - Questionable Anfernee Jennings (Edge) - Out Lorenzo Styles Jr. (S) - Questionable Barion Brown (WR/RS) - Questionable Alvin Kamra (RB) - Questionable Jeremiah Wright (G) - Out Vikings Injury Report Jordan Addison (WR) - Questionable Christian Darrisaw (OT) - Out Charles Demmings (CB) - Out Justin Jefferson (WR) - Questionable Brain O’Neil (OT) - Questionable Micheal Jurgens (OC) - Questionable Ben Yurosek (TE) - Questionable