Ole Miss swept Missouri State over the weekend and followed up with a midweek win over Southeast Missouri State.
Game one
The Rebels opened the series with a 11-6 win on Friday, Feb. 20. Hunter Elliott started the game on the mound. In Elliott’s last outing he went five innings, allowed up three hits, gave up one run and added seven strikeouts.
Elliott plunked three batters in the first and gave up one hit. The first run of the game scored off the hit batter. Elliott got out of the jam with two swinging strikeouts.
The first four Rebels got on base, jumping out one to nothing and leaving the bases loaded for Austin Fawley. Fawley launched a grand slam over the left field wall giving the Rebels a 5-1 first inning lead.
In the second inning, Dom Decker single and Judd Utermark followed it up with a two-run homer.
A smooth second inning preluded another rough inning in the third. Elliott walked the leadoff man on a four pitch walk then a left center homer made it 7-3.
Starting the fifth, Elliott worked through two quick outs with a strikeout and a groundout. Then the Bears went on a two-out rally. Starting with a double to center field and RBI single. After that, Elliott left the game. He finished with a line of 4.2 innings pitched, four hits allowed, four earned runs (five runs allowed) and five strikeouts.
Hudson Calhoun took over with a man on second and two outs. Calhoun rolled a grounder up the middle that shortstop Brayden Randle mishandled, which allowed the runner from second to score.
A Decker hit by pitch and a Will Furniss walk left first and second occupied for Collin Reuter. Reuter doubled to center, scoring two to make it 9-3 Rebels.
Calhoun rolled a grounder to end the inning in the next at-bat. Calhoun was solid out of the pen. He finished with a line of 3.1 innings pitched, four hits allowed, one earned run and four punchouts.
“I felt really good,” Calhoun said in a postgame interview. “I might’ve thrown in the bullpen too long but … felt good coming in. It’s my third year here … I’ve got some weird appearances under my belt, just feeling a lot more natural.”
Landon Waters closed out the game for the Rebels with a three-up-three-down ninth. The Rebels won 11-6.
Game two
The Rebels cruised to a 6-3 victory with four innings, eight strikeouts and just two hits allowed from pitcher Cade Townsend on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Tristan Bissetta singled in the first to score Utermark and put Ole Miss on top.
After four scoreless innings from Townsend, Taylor Rabe came into the game in relief. He got the win after tossing 3.1 innings. He surrendered three runs on three hits, including a homer.
“It’s very similar to being a starter still,” Rabe said in a postgame interview. “You are still in the bullpen in the middle of the week. You have time to warm up the same, and you know when you’re coming in.”
Ole Miss went ahead in the sixth with a bases-clearing double off the bat of Fawley, then extended the lead to 5-1 with a Hayden Federico single. The Bears clawed back with two runs in the eight, but a Decker sacrifice fly gave the home team insurance, 6-3.
Landon Koenig finished off the game with a five out save to secure the series victory.
Game three
Ole Miss won a close 3-2 game on Sunday, Feb. 22. Decker got the scoring started on Sunday with the first home run of his collegiate career, but starter Will Libbert gave up a home run in the second to even the score.
The Bears scored to take the lead in the fifth off a Randle error. Libbert ended his day after five innings pitched, six hits allowed, seven strikeouts and two earned runs.
In the seventh inning, Utermark hit his seventh home run in eight games to make it 2-2.
In the next inning, Reuter doubled to center and Austin Fawley. With two outs, Randle singled up the middle to take a 3-2 lead.
“Keep it simple … just do my job, don’t try to be too big,” Randle said in a postgame interview.
After giving up six runs in the first game Rebels staff only gave up five the rest of the series.
Walker Hooks came in and shut down the side for two innings, then JP Robertson closed out the last two innings and got the win.
“To get back out here after Tuesday’s appearance and just feel good out there throwing strikes, … overall, it felt great,” Hooks said.
Midweek game
Newly ranked No. 25 Ole Miss beat Southeast Missouri State at home on Tuesday, Feb. 24 to improve to 9-0 for the first time since 2022.
The matchup ultimately ended in the bottom of the seventh inning, when first baseman Furniss launched a three-run bomb, triggering the 10-run rule.
The Rebels showed they could string hits together, which is sometimes a question mark for this slugger-heavy lineup. Eight of the 10 hitters notched at least one hit in the contest, boasting 13 hits on the night.
Redshirt sophomore Terry Hayes Jr. took the mound to start the midweek matchup, but only worked through the Southeast Missouri lineup once with a shaky start.
The Redhawks got on the board right away, their star player Joe Hall knocked in Caleb Klein. Hayes Jr. was only able to kill their momentum by inducing a double play on a ball hit back to the mound, ending the top of the inning with Southeast Missouri up 1-0.
Ole Miss answered back in the bottom of the first with a rally started by a single up the middle from third baseman Utermark. Bissetta and Reuter, who started behind the plate, batted in Utermark and Furniss with RBI singles.
Topher Jones then knocked in his first career run with a single to third base to end the first inning with a 3-1 lead.
The Rebels broke it open in the second, bullying Southeast Missouri’s pitching. They batted through the order and then some, notching six runs in a single frame. Second baseman Dom Decker scored on a Furniss single, and Utermark reached home on a wild pitch.
Bissetta added an RBI single, and he and Reuter scored on a single by freshman Cannon Goldin. Goldin later scored on another wild pitch to make it 9-2. It took three Redhawks pitchers to send the Rebels back to the field, each one accounting for a single out.
The game looked like it would be a total beatdown, but both teams settled in. Starting with a promising performance from reliever Owen Kelly, who pitched 2.2 scoreless innings without allowing a hit.
“I’m excited for him. He pitched well, threw it in the strike zone, it was pretty clean,” head coach Mike Bianco said in a postgame interview.
Marko Sipila allowed one more Southeast Missouri run in his first outing as a Rebel. Still, bullpen arms Patrick Collopy and Grayson Gibson silenced the Redhawks from there, not allowing a run or even a hit in their innings of relief.
The Rebel offense also went dormant for a stretch, making a full nine-inning game seem imminent despite the large lead. They could not make it around the bases against pitchers Eddie White, Ranard Grace or Nathan Mertens.
However, in the bottom of the seventh Ole Miss Baseball showed signs of life. True sophomore Owen Paino roped his first hit of the year as a pinch hitter: an RBI single to the warning track to score Hayden Federico and bring the score to 10-3.
With two men on, most of Swayze had their fingers crossed for a home run, and Furniss delivered with a homer to right field to send the Redhawks packing.
“I decided that was the time I needed to finally break out of the singles-only slump,” Furniss said in a postgame interview.
What’s next?
The Rebels will head to Houston, Texas, this weekend to compete in the BRUCE BOLT College Classic. Game one is against Baylor on Friday, Feb. 27, at 3:05 p.m. The games will be streamed on Astros.com/YouTube.
