Ole Miss won the annual Governor’s Cup game against Mississippi State in Pearl, Mississippi, by a score of 5-2 to even the season series against the Bulldogs.
The Rebels bounced back from their series loss to the Bulldogs over the weekend and were able to get back on the winning side of things as they head into the final stretch of the season.
Junior starting pitcher Drew McDaniel went five innings on the mound while giving up only one earned run on two hits and secured the win.
Freshman pitcher Mason Nichols held the Bulldogs scoreless in three innings of relief, and senior closer Brandon Johnson picked up his fourth save of the year.
The Rebels struck in the top of the first inning with an RBI triple from Jacob Gonzalez and a groundout from senior first baseman Tim Elko that allowed Gonzalez to score, giving Ole Miss an early 2-0 lead. After collecting the first two outs in the bottom half of the inning, McDaniel allowed two Bulldogs to reach scoring position and gave up a two-run single that tied the game at two after one complete inning.
Elko broke the tie in the fifth with a two-run single that was followed by an RBI double by senior left fielder Kevin Graham that extended the Rebel’s lead to 5-2. The scoring would stop there as neither the Bulldog nor Rebel hitters were able to get anything else going at the plate for the remainder of the game.
Ole Miss improves its record, 23-17, on the year, and while the game doesn’t go down on the record as a conference game, it’s still seen by the NCAA tournament committee as an SEC win. This means that the Rebels’ path to making the NCAA tournament has gotten a little more doable, as finishing the SEC schedule on a 7-5 run should get them in the tournament.
It will still take an impressive run for the Rebels to sneak into the tournament, but they’ve made it a little bit easier on themselves with this win.
Their next action will come in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they will take on the fourth-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks in a series that they desperately need to win. The series begins on April 29 at 6:30 p.m. CDT on SEC Network+.
