Ole Miss defeated Auburn, 5-3, in game two of the super regional at Plainsman Park on Saturday, June 6 to move on to the College World Series. First Baseman Will Furniss’ two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning won the game for the Rebels.
Taylor Rabe started on the mound. The lineup stayed the same from Friday night’s game, with Brayden Randle still in left.
Rabe and catcher Austin Fawley got a strike-’em-out-throw-’em out double play to end the first after a single. The Rebels went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first.
Rabe gave up back-to-back singles to start the second. He got the first out with a swinging strikeout, then fielded a dribbler to the mound for the second out — both runners moved into scoring position. He ended the frame with another swinging strikeout.
The Ole Miss bats started the game with six-straight groundouts. Auburn starter Alex Petrovic threw just 18 pitches in the first two innings. He did not allow a baserunner the first time through the order.
Rabe walked the leadoff batter in the fourth. Second baseman Dom Decker threw to second for a force out, but the batter reached first safely. Auburn singled to the right side to put runners on the corners.
The Tigers scored on another single to right then the batter got into a rundown, allowing a second run to score and the batter to reach second base. Rabe caught a pop-up bunt to end the frame.
Third baseman Judd Utermark walked with one-out in the fourth to give Ole Miss its first runner, but Furniss grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Rabe surrendered a double in the fifth, his sixth hit allowed and first extra base hit of the game. He worked around it with a swinging strikeout and a ground out.
Right fielder Tristan Bissetta walked to begin the bottom of the fifth. Center fielder Hayden Federico singled to give Ole Miss their first hit of the game, advancing Bissetta to third. Federico attempted to take an unoccupied second base, but was thrown out trying to get back to first.
Shortstop Owen Paino struck out, eliminating any chance of a sacrifice fly and Fawley struck out too, killing any momentum Ole Miss had.
Rabe worked a quick nine-pitch sixth to get the Rebels back to the bats. Randle, designated hitter Collin Reuter and Decker were due up with Ole Miss needing to scratch across something.
Randle legged out an infield single to begin the frame. The Auburn second baseman made a sliding effort, but his throw went wide.
After Reuter struck out, Decker reached on a hit by pitch to set up Utermark with runners on first and second. The senior delivered a massive two-run, game-tying double.
The hit chased Petrovic from the game. Left-hander Jackson Sanders came in for relief. Two Rebel lefties, Furniss and Bissetta, were due up back-to-back. Furniss popped out for the second out of the inning and Bissetta grounded out.
Rabe came back out for the seventh on 91 pitches. Randle caught his first out in left field to begin the inning. Paino recorded the second out on a routine grounder. Bissetta made a nice jumping grab near the warning track to end the inning and Rabe’s outing.
Rabe threw 104 pitches in seven innings, gave up two earned runs on six hits, walked one and struck out eight.
The Rebels had Federico, Paino and Fawley due up in the bottom of the seventh.
Federico was hit by a pitch to begin the frame. Paino struck out. Fawley reached on another hit by pitch with two strikes. Sanders struck out another left-hander, this time Randle. Reuter came up to the plate with the go-ahead run at second and struck out.
JP Robertson came into the game in the eighth. He faced the top of the order. His first pitch resulted in a pop out to the shortstop. Furniss and Robertson completed a 3-1 ground out for the second out before walking back-to-back batters.
Federico nearly got burned on a line drive right at him, but he snagged it just as it went over his head. Had Federico not made that catch, two runs would have scored, putting the Rebels behind 4-2. The catch saved the game for Ole Miss.
“Those are really tough balls to catch. For people that don’t play baseball, that’s one of the hardest balls to catch ever,” Furniss said in the postgame press conference. “He smoked that ball, (Hayden Federico) came in the dugout and said it sounded like he (the batter) hit it bad, but it’s just so tough.”
The top of the Ole Miss order was up in the bottom of the eighth. Utermark drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a passed ball. Furniss drilled a two-run homer to take a 4-2 lead. Bissetta followed it up with a long solo homer to make it 5-2.
“I had a really, really bad (at-bat) against him (Sanders) before. I think I swung at a slider at my neck and popped up to the third baseman when Judd (Utermark) was on third,” Furniss said. “Walking up to the plate, I think I was 0-for-8 in the regional until that moment, so I was like I gotta do something to help us win. (I) just sat slider and knew that I took a really bad swing on the (at-bat) before, so he probably was going to throw it again and it worked in my favor, worked in our favor.”
The Rebels needed three outs in the top of the ninth to advance to the College World Series. Walker Hooks came into the game on back-to-back days of work looking to do just that.
The Tigers got a leadoff single to begin the inning. Hooks struck the next batter out swinging on a full count. He hit the next batter with a full count to bring the game-tying run to the plate. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position.
Auburn got within two off a sacrifice fly. The leadoff hitter came up to the plate representing the game-tying run. Utermark made the final out of the super regional on a soft grounder to his right. The bang-bang play was reviewed and the call stood to end the game.
What’s next?
The Rebels will play either USC or North Carolina on Friday, June 12 at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
