BATON ROUGE, La. - LSU senior pitcher Louis Coleman did what he does best - win in the clutch.
The former Pillow Academy standout from Schlater handed the Tigers their third straight Saturday victory in Southeastern Conference play following an LSU loss on Friday.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound right-hander again came through when it counted, pitching LSU to a 6-5 victory over Ole Miss here Saturday at Alex Box Stadium.
Coleman (6-1) threw a brilliant seven innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits.
"What can you say about Louis Coleman?" LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. "He was outstanding for us again as he's been all year."
Coleman entered the season expected to be LSU's closer. Out of necessity, though, he has become more of a stopper than a finisher.
As he has done the past two weekends, Coleman stopped the bleeding after the Tigers lost the opener of the three-game series.
The PA product opened the game with four consecutive strikeouts and finished with a career-high 10 - giving him 50 in 362/3 innings of work this season. He entered the game with an SEC-best 1.21 ERA .
He leads with league with six victories. He also has three saves to his credit.
Coleman showed signs of fatigue in the eighth inning, giving up a lead-off hit to Jordan Henry, followed by a walk to Logan Power.
After Coleman gave up a hit to Jeremy Travis that allowed the Rebels to cut the score to 6-2, junior Paul Bertuccini entered the game in relief for Coleman and struck out the first two batters he faced before freshman reliever Matty Ott came in with the bases loaded. Ott retired second baseman Zach Miller on a ground out to end the inning.
Ole Miss (16-7, 5-3) added two more runs in the top of the ninth and was on the verge of possibly spoiling things for Coleman, but Ott worked himself out of a jam to pick up his fourth save of the season.
Blake Dean led all LSU hitters in the game, finishing 4-for-5 with a double and four RBIs.
His four hits and four RBIs tied his season-highs in both categories.
The Tigers (20-6, 5-3) will go for their seventh straight SEC series victory at 1 p.m. today.
