The Ole Miss baseball team put on a show on Wednesday, blowing out Arkansas-Pine
Bluff 25-0 in a seven-inning affair. The Rebels exploded for 6 home runs in the game, including 2 from sophomore Tyler Keenan.
Junior starter Zack Phillips had a phenomenal outing, tossing 3.0 perfect innings to get the win. Phillips came out aggressively in the first, throwing strikes and spotting his fastball well. He got plenty of insurance in the bottom of the first, as the Rebels jumped out to a quick 3-0
lead. Tyler Keenan got the scoring going with an RBI single to left before senior Ryan Olenek drove in two more on a ground rule double. This forced the first pitching change of the night for UAPB after the team’s starter failed to record a single out.
After another stellar inning on the mound from Phillips in the top of the second, junior Thomas Dillard knocked in another run on a single in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to 4-0.
The Ole Miss offense exploded from there, scoring run after run in three consecutive innings. After junior Cole Zabowski singled to lead off the third, freshman Kevin Graham blasted a homer to right to add two more to the lead. Freshman Knox Loposer followed that up with the first home run of his Ole Miss career, a towering solo shot to left field.
This forced the third pitching change of the night for UAPB, but it was to no avail. Later in the inning, Keenan hit his first home run of the game, bringing two home. Dillard followed that with a moonshot to center field to bring the Rebels’ home run total to four in the inning.
Kaleb Hill replaced Phillips on the mound to start the fourth, and he was just as dominant in his 2.0 innings of work. The freshman struck out 4 of 9 batters he faced, allowing just two base runners on back-to-back walks.
Keenan hit his second home run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, a two-run shot to right, with one out. A few batters later, Graham drove a runner in on a sacrifice fly to center that pushed the score to 15-0.
The Golden Lions’ pitchers continued to struggle, walking back-to-back batters, including one with the bases loaded. After yet another pitching change, sophomore Anthony Servideo singled in two more runs before junior Grae Kessinger finally flew out to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, freshman Josh Hall recorded the first hit of his Ole Miss career, a two-run home run to right field. After redshirt senior Michael Fitzsimmons walked, sophomore Tim
Elko hit a pinch-hit triple to bring him in. Two batters later, senior Jacob Adams drove him in with an RBI single to right field. Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s pitching fell completely apart at that point, allowing a run on a hit batter with the bases loaded. Keenan followed that up with a two RBI single to right that brought the lead to 25-0.
After a scoreless sixth inning for both sides, the Ole Miss pitching staff saw its first real trouble of the game in the seventh when senior Pierce Smith hit the leadoff man before throwing two wild pitches in the next at-bat that allowed the runner to get all the way to third. After that at-bat resulted in another walk, Smith was pulled in favor of junior Taylor Broadway, who closed the game out with three straight strikeouts.
The Rebels hope to keep building momentum as they continue SEC play this weekend with a three-game series at Missouri.
