No. 13 Ole Miss plays hard, but not good enough as No. 3 Arkansas prevails in rubber match

The 13th- ranked Ole Miss Rebels erupted for 10 runs in Friday’s match with number 3 ranked Arkansas and the Razorbacks returned the favor with an onslaught of runs Saturday night.

Consequently, Sunday’s game between the SEC rivals was for all the series marbles. Winner take all, so to speak.

Arkansas ended up the cat’s eye marbles and the series with a 12-9 win Sunday afternoon.

The contest started, well, beautifully for the homestanding Rebs with starting pitcher Mason Nichols getting a 1-2-3, 13-pitch first inning against the Razorbacks’ gauntlet of the two Hawaiian Aloy brothers, who assault baseballs with uncanny regularity, and the Rebs striking first on a 2-run, opposite field Luke Hill home run.

(Sidebar: The Rebels left the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, the same as Saturday’s game, and that inning came back to haunt the men in powder blue in that contest.)

Nichols put up two more scoreless innings and was efficient in doing so, throwing a total of 32 pitches through three frames. The Razorbacks had hit a couple of balls hard, but other than that, they were rooting around in the dirt with no positive results.

In the Rebs’ half of the third frame, lightning struck again with right fielder Mitchell Sanford doubling in the right center gap and 3B Judd Utermark followed with a laser – a 2-run line drive homer over the right field fence that chased Hog starter Landon Beidelschies.

A 4-0 lead at the end of three frames was certainly encouraging for the good guys.

The Hogs got on the board in the top of the fourth with a single, a walk and an RBI single, but that was all they could muster with their first real threat of the game.

In the fifth frame, the top of the Arkansas lineup chased Nichols after three singles and a run and freshman Walter Hooks took over on the mound with two outs and men on first and second. Hooks gave up a single and an RBI with the first batter he faced and then got the next batter to fly out to center, but the damage was done.

The Hogs had cut the deficit to 4-3 with Ole Miss coming up in the bottom of the 5^th and they did not answer the call in their half of the inning with a weak fly out and two strikeouts.

The top of the sixth saw the bottom of the Hog order walk, single and double home the tying run while chasing Hooks. Brayden Jones took over with runners on 2^nd and 3^rd with one out and the score 4-4.

Jones got a groundout to second, but the go-ahead run scored. With two outs and a runner on 3^rd, one of the Aloy brothers cranked the first pitch out of the park to left center – a no doubter.

The Hogs had popped the cork on the game, leading 7-4. It was time for the Rebel bats to wake up.

Will Furniss got things started with a solo shot to center to cut the deficit to 7-5, but after a double by freshman shortstop Owen Paino, a walk by freshman DH Hayden Federico and HBP to 2B Luke Hill to load the bases, left fielder Ryan Moerman, the team’s leading hitter, grounded out to second to end the rally.

Arkansas scored one run in the top of the seventh for an 8-5 lead but the Rebels answered in the bottom half with 3 runs to tie the score at 8-8. Mitchell Sanford started things off with a home run. Utermark singled, Furniss walked and catcher Austin Fawley singled home another run. Then Paino hit a slow roller that plated Furniss to tie the score.

The Hogs loaded the bases in the top of the eighth but could not score when the Rebs turned a beautiful 4-6-3 double play to get out of the jam.

The Rebs went ahead in dramatic fashion with Mitchell Sanford walking and then Furniss hitting a slow roller between short and third. Third base coach Mike Clement never hesitated, sending Sanford who scored just ahead of the throw from left field.

9-8 Rebs with Spencer on the mound and Arkansas with one more chance.

And they capitalized. Oldest Aloy, Wehiwa, hits three run homer with two outs to give Arkansas a 12-9 lead headed to the bottom of the ninth. (They had already scratched out the tying run earlier in the inning.)

The Rebels went meekly in the bottom of the ninth. 1-2-3.

12-9 Hogs.

Postgame, it was suggested to Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco that one takeaway was they were very competitive with the third ranked team in the nation. Bianco was not into the moral victory theme.

“We just weren’t good enough,” he said. “This is what happens in the SEC. We’ve got nine weeks of this to come and you have to play good baseball or you don’t win. We squandered some opportunities.

“We couldn’t get off the field on the mound and we didn’t make enough plays in the field to win the game against a good team.”

He did admit the Rebs were competitive, but stuck to the line that is simply not good enough.

“The message is that all the teams are good and ranked in our league and you have to do enough to win. We were close today, but close is not good enough,” Mike said. “We didn’t do the things it takes to win.”

The message from Bianco?

Competitive is not good enough. Ole Miss plays to win, not to be competitive, so in that regard the 1-2 record from the weekend simply was not good enough and not acceptable.

One SEC series down, nine to go.

“We took it on the chin today, but we will regroup. We will play hard and we will come back strong,” said 2B Luke Hill.