LSU – Jr. RHP Ryan Eades (8-1, 2.29 ERA, 82.2 IP, 23 BB, 69 SO)
UM – Jr. RHP Bobby Wahl (9-0, 1.43 ERA, 88.0 IP, 40 BB, 73 SOLSU

LINEUPS

LSU (Big Changes for SR day)

Rhymes LF,
Katz 2B,
Sciambra CF,
Edward DH,
Moore 3B,
Chinea 1B,
Barash,
Foster RF,
Yocom SS

RHP Eades

Ole Miss

Mathis-LF;
Bousfield-CF;
Anderson-SS;
Turner-C;
Mistone-3B;
Orvis-1B;
P. Overbey-2b;
Jamison-RF;
Allen-DH;

RHP Wahl

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According to 247Sports' composite rankings, Williams holds a perfect score of 1.0000, is the No. 1 JUCO player in the nation and holds the top spot at both his position and in the state of Mississippi. 

Shea Dixon, who covers the Tigers for 247Sports, broke the news on Twitter:

According to Creg Stephenson of GulfLive.com, Williams caught 67 passes for 1,295 yards and 18 touchdowns during the 2012 season for the Bulldogs. He sat out the 2011 season, meaning he will have two years to play Division I football when he arrives in Baton Rouge. 

Highly recruited when he was a high school senior, "Shaq" Williams had some academic issues that forced him out of teams' plans in the 2011 recruiting cycle. He went to Mississippi Gulf Coast instead and victimized smaller corners during his second season on campus. 

If you listen to Mike Scarborough talk about him, LSU should be chomping at the bit to get this guy in the starting lineup as soon as he's eligible to do so:

Williams had been one of the most hotly recruited JUCO prospects in the nation this year, holding offers from nearly every SEC program in the process. Alabama, Auburn and Texas A&M all made a play for the 6'3", 213-pound wideout, but the Tigers landed his services on Friday night in what is huge news for Miles and staff. 

Physically imposing on film, Williams made sure he dominated JUCO secondary players to catch the eye of coaches that likely kept him on their watch list when he was ready to make the leap to the D1 big-time. 

With his experience playing in a college atmosphere, he'll have a clear leg up on the incoming freshman at the position. If he handles the physical aspect of going against better corners and continues to refine the finer parts of his game (route-running, for example), he could end up being a top pick in the NFL draft very soon. 

That's the kind of potential Williams has. 

It might not have been working time at the LSU athletic office on Friday night, but you can bet Miles and his offensive staff were thrilled to get this commitment in the books no matter the time of day. Williams' decision has been closely followed for quite some time, and Tiger fans will anxiously await his presence on the field at Tiger Stadium. 

Read more LSU Football news on BleacherReport.com

LINEUPS

LSU

McMullen DH,
Laird RF,
Bregman SS,
Katz 2B,
Rhymes LF,
Ibarra 3B,
Moore 1B ,
Ross C,
Stevenson CF.

RHP McCune

Ole Miss

Mathis-LF;
Anderson-SS;
Turner-C;
Mistone-3B;
Bousfield-CF;
Orvis-1B;
Perdzock-DH;
P. Overbey-2b;
Jamison-RF;

RHP Smith

Here is a breakdown of the various event types that happen with our starting pitching. You have ground out rate (GO%), fly out rate (FO%), walk rate (BB%), strike out rate (K%), and hit rate (H%). The first chart is the complete season totals and the second chart is exclusively SEC opponents.

Aaron Nola is the most balanced player in the LSU rotation. Nola gets his outs almost equally between strike outs, ground outs, and fly outs with all of them being above 20%. I like that his strike out rate is high because it means the ball is not in play, which reduces the chances of a hit or error. Out of 333 at bats against Nola, only 95 (28.5%) have had runners on base and 46 (13.8%) have had runners in scoring position. Nola limits base runners, which limits scoring opportunities. This is how he has managed to be effective all season. There is no glaring flaw or area for concern with Nola's stats.

Cody Glenn has been the least consistent starter for the Tigers, but there are some interesting things about his stats. Glenn is the most consistent ground ball pitcher we have. The majority of his outs (36%) are ground outs. That number holds when you control for SEC opponents. Usually this leads to less extra base hits, but that hasn't been the case with Glenn. He's given up 11 extra base hits, which is tied for the most with Ryan Eades. Out of 275 official at bats against Glenn, 112 (40.7%) have been with a runner on base and 62 (22.5%) have been with a runner in scoring position. Glenn benefited from beating up some weak opponents early on. If you control for just his SEC starts (the second graph) his numbers are less impressive. His hit rate is above 20% and his walk rate is above 10%. Glenn needs to limit walks and maintain his composure if the Tigers want to make a deep run in the post season.

Ryan Eades pitches under the most pressure of any of the Tiger pitchers. Runners are constantly on base against him. Out of 313 official at bats against Eades, 145 (46.3%) are with a runner on base and 84 (26.8%) are with a runner in scoring position. The good thing is that Eades is not giving up a lot of walks. His walk rates are below 10% for the entire season and when controlling for SEC opponents. So a lot of this could be attributed to a combination of two things, lack of command/control with balls in the strike zone and bad luck. One can be corrected, the other you can't control. His strike percentage is high at 66.6% with only one start below 60%, which means Eades is hitting the strike zone, just not the right part of the zone. In starts where Eades is effective, he has a WHIP somewhere around 1.0 to 1.300 and a Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) around 0.300. In his two bad starts (Arkansas and South Carolina), he had a WHIP above 2.0 and a BABIP of 0.500. He is more biased to fly balls than the other starters with a fly out rate around 28%. As long as Eades has solid command and is locating his pitches properly, he will give up a few hits/walks since he is primarily a fly ball pitcher but limit the damage to only a few runs per game. If his command/control is off, opponents can get to him early and score in bunches.

We're itching closer to one of the offseason halfway points -- the preseason magazine release dates! Personally, I stick with Phil Steele, mostly for the information overload he gives you (not so much his predictions -- so accurate! Just ask him!), but to each their own, and Athlon, Lindy's and Sporting News are certainly still out there, so somebody must be buying them.

One of the standard features involves quoting certain "anonymous SEC coaches" regarding each of the league's 12 teams. Sure, they usually just parrot whatever the popular message board opinion is of the team in question, but hey, I'm sure some people value them. In LSU's case, one of Athlon's writers has been tweeting about the slow and steady decline of LSU. Now, before you stop and wonder how a team that's gone 22-2 in the last two regular seasons is in a slow and steady decline, just keep in mind some of the outtakes that don't make the magazine:

• Alabama: "Look, I'm not saying Nick Saban uses lifts. I'm not. But I've shaken his hand on the field and at SEC media day, and he was only at eye level in Birmingham."
• Arkansas: "Everybody thinks Brett Bielema is soooo hot. But I've been in a locker room with him, and he totally stuffs his bra."
• Auburn: "He'll deny it, but get a little merlot in Bobby Lowder and suddenly he's off in a corner sobbing into his phone about Tommy this and Tommy that..."
• Florida: "Somebody told me Will Muschamp spent his first week in Gainesville pissing a circle around every tree on Florida's campus."
• Georgia: "Little known fact -- former Georgia stars David Greene and David Pollack played Pop Warner football together."
• Kentucky: "I'm going to tell you something funny about Kentucky fans. They don't even really like basketball that much, they just haven't been able to tell Ashley Judd for the last 20 years."
• LSU: "I once overheard somebody tell Les that Bo went to Auburn. It still pisses him off that they don't play on ‘Schembechler Field'."
• Mississippi State: "One of our players was recruited by Dan Mullen. They still love his performance in Disney's Sword and the Stone."
• Missouri: "Mike Slive just HAD to have another excuse to drive to Branson..."
• Ole Miss: "I once saw their AD cut off a lock of Eli Manning's hair and then totally deny it even though a whole room full of people saw him do it. Weird stuff..."
• South Carolina: "Jadeveon Clowney visited us, and man, I gotta say we really wanted him. But it would've blown our food budget to hell. I mean you can only let a defensive lineman eat so many head of cattle. Carolina must have a booster with a couple ranches."
• Tennessee: "Butch Jones is a smart guy, and he's willing to take a lot of chances when it comes to football. But I gotta say, I never thought I'd see him use his uncanny John Gruden impersonation to land a job."
• Texas A&M: "Johnny Football seems like a punk, but he's really a nice kid. He doesn't get the whole ‘Yell Leader' thing either."
• Vanderbilt: "James Franklin has pointy elbows. 2/10, would not bang."

We made a point of saying in this weekend's preview that LSU has little to play for this weekend against Ole Miss. Seeding in the SEC tournament is locked in and a National Seed and the accompanying hosting rights are all but assured. Ole Miss on the other hand comes in needing to separate themselves from the SEC mid pack to get themselves into the hosting discussion and a series win against the #2 team in the country would certainly do that. To bad for the Rebels that LSU loves to play spoiler.

LSU came out firing immediately with 2 runs on 4 hits in the first and never looked back. Ole Miss starter Mike Mayers, a pitcher who has been a thorn in LSU's side over his entire career, got lit up for 5 runs on 7 hits through 6 IP including nearly back to back home runs by Mason Katz and Cristian Ibarra in the 4th and an inside the park home run by Raph Rhymes. Sean McMullen would tack on another bomb to right in the 7th for insurance.

Gifs via GIF Section

More than just the stats, LSU's hitting seemed so much more focused than usual. Ball were aimed perfectly for the holes in the Rebs' D and they got there in a hurry. LSU had 4 doubles on the night to match the home run total and, aside from a baserunning mistake or two, looked the best they have on offense all year.

And that was without potential 1st round draft pick JaCoby Jones. The cause of Jones mysterious "apartment accident" may never be know, but it was damaging enough to sideline him for the weekend. Mainieri is taking no chances with the postseason rapidly approaching and is resting Jones until late next week at the earliest. Katz took over at 2B in his place and was serviceable, but there were a few moments where Jones' abilities were obviously missing. Katz will likely stay there this weekend and be fine, but we need Jones' glove to get back out there.

It seems great performances by Cody Glenn on the mound are starting to become the rule rather than the exception. Coach Mainieri said it best in the post game when comparing his game to Ryan Eades. Eades and Glenn aren't the overpowering strike thrower that Aaron Nola is, but they know how to keep balls in play and put out fires without panicking. Glenn gave up singles to the lead off hitter 3 times last night, but that runner never scored. Glenn would give up 8 hits but just 1 run through 7 IP before being relived by Joey Bourgeois and Will LaMarche.

If LSU keeps hitting like this, even without Jones, they can beat any team in the country. Taking the series tonight behind Kurt McCune and The Johnny Allstaff Relief Team is well within reach.

Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
Ole Miss............ 000 000 100 -  1 11  1
LSU................. 200 201 11X -  7 10  1
-------------------------------------------

Box Score

SEC Scoreboard via D1Baseball.com

Alabama 6 #1 Vanderbilt 7 Box Score Recap FINAL	#18 Mississippi 1 #2 LSU 7 Box Score Recap FINAL	#12 South Carolina 4 #17 Mississippi State 5 Box Score Recap FINAL
#13 Arkansas 0 Auburn 3 Box Score Recap FINAL	Florida 4 Georgia 2 Box Score Recap FINAL	Kentucky 2 Missouri 4 Box Score Recap FINAL
Texas A&M 5 Tennessee 1 Box Score Recap FINAL