The sixth inning has made the difference in the Thursday and Friday night games against LSU this weekend. Where Thursday night was in the Rebels favor, last night the Rebels fell short even behind an impressive performance from Brady Feigl.
Swayze field saw the second largest crowd in school history on Friday night. Even with the
electric crowd, the Rebels weren’t able to catch a win, falling to the Tigers 5-2.
The explosive Rebel offense of Thursday night was not able to produce in game two. Ole Miss racked up 15 hits on Thursday, but was only able to come up with five last night. Nick Fortes had a strong night offensively with two RBIs, one being a solo home run in the eighth inning. That was Fortes’ 39th RBI and eighth home run this year, giving him the second hottest bat in both categories this year.
The Rebels had a hard time getting hits against LSU pitcher Ma’Khali Hilliard. Hilliard threw an impressive breaking ball that the Rebels couldn’t quite handle. The Rebels had several big hits, but were robbed of anything by the LSU outfielders. The Tiger outfielders showed great speed and athleticism, taking away opportunities for the Rebels to get ahead.
“Some days it works, some days it doesn’t,” Fortes said. “Today, he got the better of us, but tomorrow we can’t really change too much and just stick with what we’ve been doing.”
Brady Feigl had a remarkable performance on the mound. Even with the loss and the end of his perfect record at Swayze this season, Feigl struck out nine Tigers, tying for the most in one game this season. The crowd gave Feigl a standing ovation as he jogged back into the dugout in the seventh inning. Nine strikeouts against the team who is hardest to strike out in the SEC was a notable accomplishment for Feigl. Coach Bianco and all the players were impressed with Feigl’s outing and were upset they couldn’t help him get the win.
“I think it was his best outing,” Bianco said. “It’s a shame when you have your best outing and
don’t win.” Feigl gave up two runs in the sixth to give the Tiger’s the lead. After that, the Ole Miss bullpen wasn’t able to shut the Tiger offense down. Will Stokes came in briefly for Feigl, but gave up three runs before Greer Holston came to the mound. Holston struck out two and was able to close the game out with no additional runs from the Tigers. The Ole Miss bats couldn’t generate any more runs in the bottom of the ninth, leaving a runner on base and the tying run in the batter’s box.
The deciding game three of the series will be today at 3 p.m. The Rebels are hoping to clinch the series and stay atop the SEC West.
