Another night of not avoiding the big inning costs No. 19 Ole Miss in loss to No. 18 Southern Mississippi
Ole Miss dropped its opening SEC series this past weekend but had a chance to bounce back with a win over Top 20 team in the midweek.
The troubles that plagued the 18th-ranked Rebels in the final two games against Arkansas followed them to Pearl as No. 19 Southern Mississippi beat them 6-2 at Trustmark Park on Tuesday.
With the victory the Golden Eagles (15-6) split the regular season series after Ole Miss (15-5) beat them in Oxford last month.
Similar to what happened last Saturday, one bad inning on the mound was the Rebels undoing. Southern Mississippi scored four runs in the fifth with a three-run home run by left fielder Davis Gillespie and a RBI double by Carson Paetow was the difference in the game.
Gunnar Dennis and Will McCausland were responsible for the damage done in the inning.
From there the Ole Miss bullpen shutdown the Golden Eagles offense for the next three innings but its own offense disappeared after the two-run third inning and took too late to get going again.
“It’s enough blame to go around, but, we’ve done it three games in a row where we just can’t get off the field and we give the big crooked number up,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “We got to be better and then we as coaches have to figure out who those guys are and pitch those guys. But we can’t give up the keep giving up the crooked number.”
The offense started off strong for the Rebels, who out-hit the Golden Eagles 8 to 7, with two triples in the first three innings. Mitchell Sanford was responsible for both as the second one scored a pair to tie the game up.
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After that it took until the eighth inning for Ole Miss to threaten again. Back-to-back innings saw it load the bases and have the tying run at the plate. In the eighth inning Judd Utermark struck out on three pitches then Luke Hill hit into a game-ending double play in the ninth.
Ole Miss stranded nine runners in the game.
“We just vanished, offensively, for a couple innings and you can’t do that,” Bianco said. “You got to continue to compete. …Throughout the game we got to have some better at-bats.”
The top half of the Rebels lineup went 4-for-17 with Sanford and Campbell Smithwick the only players to have a multi-hit night.
Ole Miss returns to Southeastern Conference action this weekend, traveling to Missouri for a three-game series.
