Ole Miss Baseball: Rebels win, headed to Super Regional
Coach Mike Bianco and Ole Miss baseball were back in action Sunday as they faced off against Jacksonville State in the Oxford regional championship.
Ole Miss baseball entered the championship round of the Oxford regional Sunday coming off a 6-1 win over Clemson on Saturday. The Rebels would be facing the Jacksonville State Gamecocks for the second time during the regional. The Rebels opened the Oxford regional with a 16-2 win over the Gamecocks. Sunday night would be more of the same.
The Rebels jumped out front early with 1 run in the top of the first. Ole Miss then extended their lead to 6-0 with 5 runs in the top of the third. Jacksonville State answered with 2 runs in the bottom of the third to cut the Rebels lead to 6-2. The Rebels added 6 runs in the top of the fourth to take a 12-2 lead into the fifth.
Ole Miss wasn’t done piling on the runs and added 5 runs in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 17-2. The Rebels added 1 run in the top of the seventh and 1 run in the top of the eighth to make it a 19-2 game. The Gamecocks added runs in the bottom of the eighth and ninth innings to make it a 19-4 final and give the Rebels the Oxford Regional championship. OHT looks at the win by the numbers and has some observations.
By The Numbers
Ole Miss Rebels
In the regional championship win there were 12 Rebels who combined for 20 hits with 5 Rebels recording multiple hit games. Leading all Rebels at the plate was junior Cole Zabowski who went 4 for 5 while junior Thomas Dillard (2HR) went 3 for 3 with 7 RBI. Senior Jacob Adams went 2 for 2 with 2 RBI while sophomore Tim Elko went 2 for 2 with 1 RBI. Junior Grae Kessinger went 2 for 6 at the plate.
Sophomore Anthony Servideo (1HR) went 1 for 1 with 2 RBI. Senior Michael Fitzsimmons and freshman Kevin Graham each went 1 for 2 at the plate. Freshman Justin Bench went 1 for 2 with 1 RBI while junior Cooper Johnson went 1 for 5 with 1 RBI. Sophomore Tyler Keenan also went 1 for 5 while senior Ryan Olenek went 1 for 6 with 1 RBI.
Freshman right-hander Gunnar Hoglund drew the start for coach Bianco and Ole Miss baseball. Hoglund went for 5.1 innings allowing 1 earned run on 5 hits with 5 Ks and 1 WP. Bianco went to the bullpen and junior right-hander Houston Roth entered in the sixth. Roth went for 1.2 innings allowing no earned runs on 2 hits with 2 Ks.
Senior right-hander Connor Green entered in the eighth and allowed 1 earned run on 3 hits with 1 K. Sophomore right-hander Max Cioffi entered in the ninth and finished out the hill for the Rebels allowing 1 earned run on 2 hits.
Observations
The Rebels came home from Hoover with a bad taste in their mouth from the SEC Tourney championship loss to Vandy. The Rebels needed a strong regional and they found it. Thru three games the Rebels managed to plate 41 runs and allowed just 7. The Rebels were sound at the plate and on the mound and it showed in the final scores in all three games.
Next. The 2019 Diamond Rebels!. dark
Coach Mike Bianco and Ole Miss baseball will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Fayetteville to face Arkansas in the Super Regional. The Super will be the best of three games to determine which team will make the CWS. First pitch for game-one is set for 11am CT Saturday morning and will be televised via ESPN. Good luck to coach Bianco and the Rebels. Hotty Toddy!