Riley Maddox throws a career outing and Ole Miss stays alive with win over No. 3 Texas A&M
Riley Maddox underwent emergency oral surgery to remove a wisdom tooth due to an infection on Monday. Four days later he led Ole Miss to a must-win over No. 3 Texas A&M.
In his final start at Oxford-University Stadium was Maddox’s best, working six innings and recording a career high seven strikeouts in the Rebels 4-3 win over the Aggies. But the start was in doubt at the front end of the week.
As the days rolled out Maddox felt more confident he would be able to take the mound. Lucky for Ole Miss (26-23, 10-15 Southeastern Conference) he did.
Maddox also rolled out some new pitches, including what he called a “sweeper” despite not getting much practice during the week.
“I was a little worried because I didn’t throw a (bull)pen (session) this week because I got my wisdom teeth removed on Monday,” Maddox said. “I was a little worried but it worked out pretty well.”
He was utilized a gyro slider but now Maddox mixes them by throwing a cutter and sweeper. He credits his new pitch arsenal to former Ole Miss pitcher Jack Dougherty.
“He’s helped me a lot through this process,” Maddox said. “He was the one that told me, he was like, ‘You need to throw sweepers to righties and cutters to lefties. So, I was just trying to do that tonight.”
Behind Maddox the Ole Miss bullpen threw three shutout innings of relief. Wes Mendes and Connor Spencer combined for six strikeouts with Spencer earning his seventh save of the season and Mendes picked up his second win of the year.
Working the seventh and eighth innings Mendes did not allow a hit, striking out four Aggie batters and walked two more.
“We knew it was in (Mendes),” Maddox said. “He went through a little slump there in the middle but everyone has and I think he’s kind of hitting his stride now and I think it’s right at the perfect time, too.”
The eighth inning was the moment that could be remembered for Ole Miss depending on the rest of the weekend.
After Mendes kept the second best offense in the SEC off the board a second straight inning the Rebels managed to get a pair of runs on the board for its first lead.
Andrew Fischer got a leadoff single to start off the bottom of the frame and then worked his way to third base off a throwing error by the pitcher. Jackson Ross then scored him off a RBI double to tie the game.
Ethan Groff then scored Ross for the winning run off a sacrifice-fly.
Situational hitting is still a strugle for Ole Miss but on Friday they were 2-for-2 with a runner on third base with less than two outs.
“A lot of emotions,” Ross said. “On a night like that, we’re holding one of the best offenses in the country to three runs, seven hits. Offense has to step up there and I think we kind of realized that late in the game. Riley pitched great for six innings.”
Ole Miss will try for the series win on Saturday at 4 p.m. CT.
