In an uninspired catastrophe of a series for Ole Miss Baseball, the Diamond Rebels lost to the No. 24 Kentucky Wildcats in their second home series of the season from March 29-31.
Coming off of a 5-3 home win against Austin Peay on Tuesday, March 26, Ole Miss was looking to continue their win streak and go 2-0 in SEC conference play. They were sorely disappointed.
Game one (lost 5-3)
On Friday, Rebel right-handed pitcher Riley Maddox started on the mound for Ole Miss and escaped two innings with no score for the Wildcats.
Ole Miss suffered the same fate, though, as they could not get past Kentucky’s defense and went scoreless in the first two innings. At the top of the third inning, Kentucky kicked things off by adding one run on the board. At the bottom of the third inning, Rebel catcher Campbell Smithwick answered back to tie things up and keep Ole Miss in the game.
The Wildcats sped things up in the sixth inning, tacking three more runs onto their score off of singles and one error, forcing the Rebels to work their way up from a 4-1 deficit. Rebel infielder Ethan Lege answered and added a two-run home run to his name and put the Rebels in a much better position, but the Wildcats were still leading at 4-3 after six innings.
Kentucky added a lead off home run late in the eighth inning to make the margin a bit wider. In a scoreless ninth inning, Kentucky took the first game of the series at Swayze 5-3.
Game two (lost 17-9)
The Rebels needed to take game two in order to keep them in the running for the series. While Ole Miss was the stronger team in the beginning, the Wildcats did hold back in the latter portion of the game.
Left-handed pitcher Liam Doyle started off strong for the Rebels, and he slipped through the first inning with a clean sheet to his name. The Rebels were underway in the bottom of the first, with infielders Luke Hill, Andrew Fischer and Jackson Ross all hitting singles. Outfielder Ethan Groff brought home two Rebels with a fly ball, striking first on the scoreboard. Ole Miss stood tall at 2-0 at the bottom of the first inning.
It was early in the fourth inning when the Wildcats took off and made it a ball game. After a four-run top of the second inning, Kentucky played fiercely, and the Rebels would not see a lead the rest of the game. The Wildcats led 7-2 at the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Rebels responded to this score quickly.
After Lege and Groff added singles to start things off at the bottom of the fourth inning, infielder Bo Gaitlin added an RBI to help Lege score. Outfielder Treyson Hughes then singled to help Groff meet homeplate.
Ole Miss managed to narrow the gap and heat things up for both sides, catching up to Kentucky 7-6. Both Ole Miss and Kentucky added to their scores: the Wildcats added two runs in the top of the fifth inning, and Groff sent a solo home run over the fence. But, four more runs for Kentucky gave them an extra lead at 13-7.
To top things off, Kentucky added four more runs at the top of the ninth inning, while Ross added one more solo home run to finish out game two by a much larger score margin than game one.
Game three (lost 15-1)
Ole Miss hoped to at least pull one win out of the series in their last game on Sunday, but the Easter Bunny had different plans for the Rebels. Ole Miss dropped the series finale in the ugliest game of them all, as Kentucky slashed the Rebels with 15 runs.
Kentucky carried game two’s momentum into game three and started things off strong, scoring five runs and recording four hits in the first inning at bat to set the score 5-0 early. Heading into the fourth inning, the Wildcats added five more runs off of one hit to advance the score to 10-0.
Ole Miss resisted Kentucky with help from Ross and Lege, who added singles, and Groff grounded out in order to bring home Lege. This, however, was Ole Miss’ only run of the game. Kentucky added a late home run in the fifth inning, advancing the score to 11-1 to continue their offensive surge.
The sixth inning was a peaceful inning of no scores or runs for both teams, but the Wildcats answered again with four more runs in the seventh inning to end the series finale 15-1 in a run-rule seven innings.
What’s next?
The Rebels’ record now drops to 18-10 overall and 3-5 in SEC conference play. Ole Miss will look past this weekend’s losses and focus on their midweek matchup against the University of Memphis on Tuesday, April 2, at 6 p.m. CT.
