Ole Miss Baseball: No.3 Rebels Roll Thru The Memphis Tigers
No.3 Ole Miss baseball began rivalry week with a midweek road game against the Memphis Tigers Wednesday night at AutoZone Park.
No.3 Ole Miss baseball (26-4) was coming off a huge home series win over No.5 Arkansas and had to face the Memphis Tigers (9-20) on the road. Memphis was coming off a series loss to No.25 Central Florida. In a chilly Wednesday night game the Rebels and Tigers faced off in the first of four rivalry road games the Rebels face this week.
After a scoreless 1st inning the Rebels jumped on the board first in the top of the 2nd with 1 run. The Rebels wasted no time adding 2 more runs in the top of the 3rd to take the 3-0 lead. Ole Miss added 1 more run in the top of the 4th. With the 4-0 lead in the top of the 5th the Rebels added 2 runs to push the lead to 6-0. In the top of the 6th the Rebels exploded with 5 runs to make the lead 11-0. The Rebels then added an insurance run in the top of the final frame to take the 12-0 win over the Tigers.
FINAL | It's all #RebsBSB in Memphis as No. 3 Ole Miss cruises to a 12-0 win to stay undefeated in midweek games and improve to 26-4 on the season.#HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/p3G29ZRlLC
— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) April 5, 2018
The win pushed the Rebels to tie the best 30 game start in Ole Miss baseball program history. The win was also the second consecutive game in which the Rebels have scored double-digit runs. Right now the Rebels are playing very good baseball. Pitching is as good as expected from coach Mike Bianco’s staff and the offensive production has been incredible. Of course it’s easy to project where the Rebels may land at the end of the regular season. However, there is still a lot of baseball left to be played. For now we’ll enjoy this win by the numbers.
By The Numbers
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Sophomore right-hander Houston Roth (4-0, 4.00) drew the start for the Rebels in the midweek match-up. Roth went 4.1 innings on the hill and allowed 0 earned runs on just 3 hits. Roth had 5 Ks and 4 BB. Mike Bianco made the call to the bullpen in the 5th and freshman right-hander Max Cioffi (0-0, 0.00) took the hill. Cioffi went 1.2 innings and allowed 0 earned runs on just 1 hit. Cioffi had 1 K.
Freshman left-hander Jordan Fowler (3-0, 4.11) entered in the 7th and allowed no hits. Fowler had 1 K and 1 BB. Junior right-hander Connor Green (0-0, 0.00) pitched the 8th inning for the Rebels. Green allowed no hits. Sophomore right-hander Austin Miller (0-0, 1.35) pitched the 9th. Miller faced three batters, allowed no hits and had 2 Ks. Roth picked up the Wednesday night win.
At The Plate
On the evening 8 Rebels combined for 13 hits while 4 Rebels had multiple hit games. Leading all Rebels in hits at the plate was senior Will Golsan (.250) who went 3 for 5 with 1 RBI. Sophomore Thomas Dillard (.321, 7 HR) went 2 for 2 with 4 RBI while junior Ryan Olenek (.364, 1 HR) and Tyler Keenan (.344, 3 HR) both went 2 for 4.
Junior Michael Fitzsimmons (.500, 1 HR) went 1 for 1 as a PH while junior Nick Fortes (.274, 6 HR) went 1 for 3 with 1 RBI. Sophomores Grae Kessinger (.318, 1 HR) and Cole Zabowski (.321, 7 HR) both went 1 for 4. Kessinger had 1 RBI while Zabowski had 2 RBI.
Right now the Rebels have gained momentum at the plate and have exploded in the past two games. Of course, with solid pitching the Rebels batting order is making it very hard for teams to stay in games. The Rebels responded to the first opponent in rivalry week with a shutout win. We have to believe they will also handle the next rival this weekend.
Up Next
No.3 Ole Miss baseball (26-4, 6-3) will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Starkville to take on the Miss State Bulldogs (15-15, 2-7). The Bulldogs enter the weekend series coming off a midweek 5-0 win over Southern University after losing a SEC road series to No.20 LSU this past weekend. First pitch for game-one of the three-game series is set for 6:30pm CT Friday from Dudy-Noble Field. Good luck to coach Mike Bianco and the Rebels. BEAT STATE COLLEGE! Hotty Toddy!