SEC Baseball Championship 2018: Ole Miss Crushes LSU to Capture 3rd-Ever Title

LSU came into Sunday's SEC Championship Game with hopes of repeating. 

Ole Miss had other ideas.

Nick Fortes had four hits, and Michael Fitzsimmons and Tim Rowe each had home runs, leading the Rebels to a 9-1 victory over LSU. It's Ole Miss' third conference tournament championship in school history and first since 2006.

Houston Roth threw 4.1 innings before ceding to the bullpen, allowing one run on four hits. The bullpen shut things down the rest of the way, pitching 4.2 innings of no-hit ball.

LSU got on the board in the first inning on a Daniel Cabrera RBI double. Three of the Tigers' four hits went for extra bases, but they could not put anything together after the first frame.

Chase Cockrell answered with an RBI single to tie the game in the top of the second. After Fortes scored on a wild pitch in the top of the third, Ole Miss never looked back. Fortes had an RBI single in the fourth to make it 3-1, and it stayed that way until the Rebels broke things open with a four-run seventh.

Fortes got things started with a single and Thomas Dillard walked, with both being driven in on a two-run single by Will Golsan. Rowe came up next and drove a 3-2 pitch over the center-field wall.

Fitzsimmons had a pinch-hit blast in the top of the ninth to close out the scoring.

Ole Miss now awaits NCAA tournament seeding, which will air live Monday at 12 p.m. ET on ESPNU. The Rebels are projected to host a regional and could be a sleeper championship pick, provided their pitching keeps carrying them. Ole Miss gave up just two total runs over its final three games in the conference tournament.