Although the night started disastrously for Ole Miss, the Rebels still found a way to escape Swayze with a win on Wednesday night with a final score of 15-3.
It certainly wasn’t the career debut freshman Gunnar Hoglund was hoping for.
He allowed four hits and three earned runs in 2.0 innings on the mound, with two of those runs coming in his first inning. Hoglund did seem to compose himself somewhat during his outing, striking out three straight batters to end the first inning.
“I was a little anxious to start the game,” Hoglund said. “I think, the first couple of batters, I let nerves get to me a little bit. I kind of settled down after that.”
Despite the early two-run deficit, Ole Miss responded in a big way. Moments after Hoglund retired three straight batters, Tyler Keenan gave the Rebels their first lead of the night with a 3-run bomb to right field. His night ended with a stat line of 3-5 at the plate, five RBIs and a homer.
Ole Miss wasn’t done scoring yet. Following Keenan’s home run, Ole Miss put an extra two insurance runs on the board for good measure. Ole Miss’s 19 hits on the night was the most in a game since May 13, 2016.
“Tonight, we needed some offense after Saturday when we fell behind,” Ole Miss head coach Bianco said. “It was nice to bounce back in the first.”
Houston Roth made his first appearance of the season after dealing with a shoulder injury over the weekend. Like Hoglund, Roth pitched 2.0 innings, but he had a much cleaner outing, striking out four while only giving up one hit.
“I felt good tonight,” Roth said. “I didn’t feel the pain in my shoulder. It was a little stiff, I guess, but I felt good. I felt normal and was excited about how it went.”
Doug Nikhazy, Connor Green, Jordan Fowler and Tyler Myers each made appearances, pitching the final five innings and collectively giving up five hits and eight strikeouts with no earned runs.
“We don’t do it much, but today was a day where we needed to pitch a lot of people,” Bianco said. “From the third inning on, we were really good on the mound, really clean in the field and I’m proud of the way we played.”
A 6-3 lead going into the third frame is a good spot for a team to be in, but it doesn’t mean the game is over.
However, the fourth and fifth innings quickly put any Arkansas State comeback hopes to bed.
The Rebels exploded in the fourth, adding five more runs to their total. They followed that up with another high-scoring inning in the fifth that provided Ole Miss with a 14-3 lead highlighted by a three-run dinger courtesy of Thomas Dillard, his second of the year.
Dillard has been on a hot streak to start the year, batting a ridiculous .833 coming into Wednesday’s game. He finished the night 2-4, three RBI and a home run. Dillard won’t be able to maintain that average throughout the year, but if he maintains this play, a Golden Spikes award may be waiting for him at season’s end.
“We knew (Dillard) could do this,” Bianco said. “Just a great start (of the season) for him.”
Overall, it was a productive day for Ole Miss, both offensively and defensively. All but one of the nine starters in the lineup registered a hit, with five of them racking up three hits each.
Pitching is still the big unknown of this team, but if they continue to hit like they did on Wednesday night, they’ll be a hard out for any team going forward.
“We’re doing how people thought we would,” Dillard said. “There’s just simple things we need to do better. We’re always going to be able to hit the ball far, but we need to go out there and execute the little things, and that’s what’s going to make our offense a lot better.”
