By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

BATON ROUGE – Gage Jump on the bump toasted some Rebels’ rumps Thursday night in Alex Box Stadium.

LSU’s left-handed starting pitcher held Ole Miss to one run and five hits in six innings. He struck out eight, recording a strikeout or more every inning.

He threw 67 percent of his pitches for strikes. His pitch count of 83 was still relatively low.

And he was unhappy that Mother Nature showed up at the wrong time.

“I thought I could have thrown the whole game,” Gage said. “But lightning. . . I was pretty upset when there was lightning.”

Gage was in the LSU dugout with the Tigers at bat with two outs in the bottom of the sixth when the umpiring crew halted the game because lightning was detected within an 8-mile radius of the stadium.

LSU head coach Jay Johnson wasn’t happy either. For once, his team’s pinpoint, timely hitting and flawless fielding were copacetic, and the Tigers held a 4-run lead in Game 1 of the final SEC regular season series of the year.

“After spending many years in San Diego and Tucson, Arizona,” Johnson said of his previous sunny coaching stops where weather delays were a rarity, “this is a lot harder.”

After a 1-hour, 39-minute delay in which lightning led to a downpour that ended Gage’s night, LSU’s pitching continued to motor the Tigers down victory lane. Four relievers combined to blank the Rebels in the final three innings, preserving a 5-1 win that qualified the Tigers for next week’s SEC Tournament starting Tuesday in Hoover, Ala.

Most bracketologists feel LSU (34-20, 11-17) won’t have a chance of getting an NCAA Tournament at-large bid with anything less than 13 league wins (including one in the conference tournament if needed). Ole Miss (27-26, 11-17) has college baseball’s No. 1 strength of schedule and is neck and neck with the Tigers on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

It’s why nothing less than total attention to detail in every part of the game – hitting, pitching and fielding – is required this weekend for the defending national champions.

All three winning elements have rarely simultaneously shown up this year for LSU.

But all of the home team’s baseball planets aligned in Thursday’s game, from shortstop Michael Braswell’s leaping first-inning grab of an Ole Miss line drive to start an inning-ending double play, to Gage’s steady mound performance, to five Tigers combining for 8 timely hits to scratch across all of LSU’s runs in the second, third and fourth.

“All three of the phases were really good,” Johnson said. “We played very good defense tonight. We struck a lot of guys out (13), so that minimizes the plays. And we got his (Ole Miss starting pitcher Riley Maddox) pitch count up early. I looked up in the fourth and he was pretty close to 80 pitches. I was like, `Wow, for once this feels like 2023.”

Seven of LSU’s hits were singles including second baseman Steven Milam’s 2-out RBI in the second, first baseman Jared Jones’ 2-strike RBI stroke in the third, and Braswell’s full-count 2-RBI liner to left center in the fourth, followed a batter later by third baseman Tommy White delivering a 2-strike rip to left field.

The only non-single was White’s third-inning triple, which he noted was a rarity for him. The ball bounced off the base of the center field wall and caromed away from Rebels’ center fielder Ethan Groff.

“When I was almost to second base and he (Groff) was still going for the ball.” White said, “I thought I’ll take a shot (at a triple). I think the last time I had a triple I was like nine years old, but that didn’t really count because I smoked it to the wall on a small field.”

One of the most impressive performances was LSU relief pitcher Christian Little jumpstarting the Tigers after the rain delay when they rested and feasted on tacos in their clubhouse.

Little opened the parade of LSU relievers following him by striking out 3 of the 4 batters he faced in the Ole Miss seventh when play resumed. He, Nate Ackenhausen, Gavin Guidry and Griffin Herring combined to allow 1 hit while striking out 5 and walking 2 of the 12 Rebels’ batters they faced in the final three innings.

Thursday’s start time was moved from 6 p.m. to 4 p.m. in an unsuccessful effort to get ahead of the severe thunderstorms. With much the same weather expected for Game 2, the start time today has been pushed from 6:30 p.m. to 12 noon.

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com