No. 15 Ole Miss outlasts Florida in a nearly four-hour battle of attrition

In nearly a four-hour battle of attrition, No. 15 Ole Miss defeated Florida 7-5 in the opener of the SEC series in Oxford.

The Rebels moved to 20-5 overall and 5-2 in the SEC while the Gators fell to 18-10 and 0-7.

Ole Miss left 14 men stranded on the bases and had 13 walks while Florida used seven pitchers in the 3 hour and 40 minute game.

The Rebels were spurred on by starting pitcher Hunter Elliott going 5 2/3 innings and giving up 3 runs on 6 hits. He ended up with the win and moved to 5-0 on the year.

“I didn’t have my best stuff, but my changeup was good and I relied on it a lot. I also battled when thing weren’t going my way,” said Elliott.

“Hunter had a tough third inning when the 9 hole hitter launched a mistake for a three-run homer, but he battled back like he always does,” said Rebel coach Mike Bianco.

Mason Morris has similar results, struggling one inning by giving up 2 runs in the seventh,  but settling down to retire the side in the eighth with no further damage.

“Mason also had a hiccup, but came right back with a very good inning,” Bianco noted.

Then, Brayden Jones – closing for the injured Connor Spencer, who will not pitch this weekend – came in and threw heat, retiring the side in order for the save.

“The radar on the scoreboard showed 99 mph, but it does not round up. I guarantee you he hit 100 a couple of times. Brayden was dominant,” Mike stated. “All three of the guys we used were good overall. They all answered the bell and showed they are great competitors.

“Florida has a good offense, but we held them down enough to get the win.”

While the Ole Miss pitching held the Gators to 5 runs on 10 hits, while walking only 1, the Rebel offense did just enough to get the win.

Ole Miss only had 8 hits, but they walked, as stated previously, 13 times. Unfortunately, they left 14 men stranded on base and had the cased loaded three times with little production.

“It’s hard to be critical because we scored 7 runs, but it was not a good night because we left so many men on base. When you look at the game, we just didn’t produce the way we should have,” Bianco continued. “I don’t know how you can have 8 hits and 13 walks and only score 7 runs. That’s really hard to do.

“It was frustrating. We just didn’t get the big hit to clear the bases, but we won the game, so there’s that. Fortunately that lack of production with the bases loaded did not come back to haunt us.”

1B Will Furniss only had 1 hit but he drove in 4 runs with a 2-run double and 2 sacrifice flies. Randle, Isaac Humphrey and Hayden Federico also had runs batted in.

“The double I hit was a slider. I sat slider, thinking that’s what they would throw and I was right,” said Furniss. “We were really patient at the plate and the pitchers were really good taking pressure off of us.”

Furniss praised Randle.

“He’s been such a great teammate to all of us and it’s tough being on the bench. I know from experience. He has come in and produced and everyone on the team is pulling for him,” Furniss noted. “He deserves it. Brayden is a winner and he produces when he gets his chances.”

Federico walked 4 times in the game and Randle was the only Rebel with multiple hits, getting 2 on the night.

Judd Utermark played 2^nd base, Luke Hill was moved to 3B and Luke Cheng started out at shortstop, but a collision early in the game ended up taking him out of the game, giving way to Brayden Randle.

“Judd may be the biggest second baseman in the country, but he has looked very good there in practice,” noted Bianco.

Asked why Randle instead of Owen Paino when Cheng had to come out, Bianco was short and sweet with his answer.

“Randle is playing better,” he said.

Next question. . . . .

Will Florida using seven pitchers on the night hinder them tomorrow when the schedule has been changed to a 3 p.m. doubleheader due to bad weather predicted for Saturday?

“I doubt it will bother them. They have a ton of guys who are used to doing that,” said Mike. “Time will tell. The goal is use less pitchers, but their pitchers only pitched a few batters each. They will be ready to go tomorrow.”