After beginning the year 3-0, Ole Miss baseball rode its opening weekend momentum into Tuesday’s win over the Memphis Tigers.
Mike Bianco handed the ball to Houston Roth, who pitched four complete innings and struck out six batters, for his first career start as a Rebel. Coupled with a strong offensive performance, the Rebels pushed through a late-inning Tiger comeback en route to an 8-6 win.
“I felt good,” Roth said. “I think it’s a different situation. This being my first start, I had a little bit more adrenaline (than coming out of the bullpen).”
Roth gave up two earned runs on a home run in four innings of work en route to his first win of the season. Nick Fortes, who started behind the plate Tuesday, believed that Roth handled himself well in his first collegiate start.
“Houston was really good,” Fortes said. “Filled up the zone like he always does. He looked good the entire night.”
Fortes was also a large part of the Rebels’ offensive success, going 3-4 at the plate with two home runs and six RBIs, his first of the season.
“I kind of needed that breakout game,” Fortes said. “I kind of struggled the first weekend a little bit, so I needed a night like tonight to get me going.”
The Rebels’ offensive success came against six different Memphis pitchers, and two Rebels other than Fortes had multiple hits. One such Rebel was shortstop Grae Kessinger, who went 4-5 and scored three runs.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive,” Kessinger said. “Let the swing take care of itself, don’t overthink it and just play ball like I have my whole life.”
Kessinger, who jumped on numerous first pitches Tuesday night, is the Rebels’ primary leadoff hitter, which has allowed him to stay aggressive and take advantage of pitches early in the count.
“When you get two strikes at this level, it gets a lot harder to hit,” Kessinger said. “So I’m just trying to be aggressive early and put a good swing on it.”
Coming into 2018, many analysts cited the strength of Ole Miss’ pitching rotation and bullpen, but little was known about how the offense would perform after a lackluster 2017 campaign. In three of its first four games, however, Ole Miss has garnered more than 10 hits, a much-welcomed support for the talented pitching staff.
“We know we’re talented,” Kessinger said. “We’re confident and swinging it great, and we just hope to continue doing that.”
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco also shared Kessinger’s mindset.
“I know we struggled last year offensively,” Bianco said. “Everybody has said that and talked about it, but we think we have a good offense, and what I’m really proud of is that we’ve (executed) with a lot of different people.”
Heading into the eighth inning, Ole Miss had an 8-3 lead over Memphis, but three late Tiger runs forced Rebel pitcher Will Stokes and solidified closer Dallas Woolfolk to scramble to close the game. Memphis had the tying runs in scoring position in the top of the ninth, but Woolfolk sealed the deal with a strikeout.
Despite the late-game hiccup, Bianco was pleased with how his bullpen snuffed out the comeback when it was brought into the game but admitted that his pitchers struggled when they were brought out for another inning.
“If you’re going to have a good bullpen, guys have got to come in and put that fire out,” Bianco said. “I thought Will, Dallas and Greer (Holston) did that tonight. They didn’t do well coming back out, but when they jumped into the fire, they pitched pretty well.”
Ole Miss was ranked as high as ninth nationally coming into Tuesday and will hope to carry the momentum into the weekend when the team will host a 3-0 Tulane program in a three-game series at Swayze Field that begins Friday.
