Ole Miss knocks off Florida to advance in SEC Tournament and keep hosting hopes alive
HOOVER, Ala. — It has been a minute but Ole Miss gets to prop its feet up and stay in the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament for a little bit.
In a game that many viewed as elimination game for a hosting bid in next week’s NCAA Tournament the 7 Seed Rebels beat 10 Seed Florida 3-1 to keep alive in Hoover and knock one contending SEC team fighting for that Regional host spot.
Ole Miss (38-18) will now play 2 Seed Arkansas in the quarterfinal round on Friday at 3 p.m. CT back at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Choosing to go with ace Hunter Elliott the Rebels were putting all their bullets in the chamber on Wednesday knowing how big this one win is for the trajectory of their NCAA Tournament journey.
In what might be his final time taking the mound at the SEC Tournament Elliott gave another masterful performance in a career full of them. He went 5.1 innings giving up a run – unearned – off two hits while striking out eight and issuing the only walk of the night by an Ole Miss pitcher.
“The juices were definitely flowing,” Elliott said. “It was a great crowd tonight and it’s always good to pitch when games really matter. …I think I relied on everything tonight. Three of my four pitches I really threw, a lot. Fastball had really good life today. Got a lot of swinging misses on it. My changeup was good and I think I really executed some sliders today. So I think it was all working.”
Mason Morris came in and worked 2.2 innings of scoreless relief with a pair of strikeouts. He threw 36 pitches but did not come in for the ninth inning with the chance to save him for later in the week. Connor Spencer got the save with a 14-pitch ninth and a strikeout.
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The Ole Miss offense was back to being stagnant to start but found life.
Florida held its ace Liam Peterson for Wednesday, choosing to not throw him against South Carolina in Tuesday’s first round game. The right-hander was looking like an ace the first three innings but then the Ole Miss bats started connecting with pitches.
The Rebels scored all three of their runs in the fourth inning. A double by center fielder Isaac Humphrey scored a run as did a RBI-single by designated hitter Campbell Smithwick, though another run scored off a throwing error by Florida shortstop Bobby Boser.
Second baseman Judd Utermark got into scoring position with a double to set up Humphrey as part of his 2-for-3 night.
“Our offense is not without flaws and it’s a little bit scary when you’re facing a guy that’s thrown 65 innings and struck out 87. That doesn’t necessarily play into our hands,” Ole Miss hitting coach Mike Clement said. “But the thing our offense can do is rush you and three (runs) felt like about eight tonight. Unseasonably cool for this time of year hear. Big ballpark. Ball not traveling, so you put up a three spot and it felt pretty good with what we have on the mound.”
With a day off on Thursday there is the chance that Ole Miss can get Spencer back for the game against Arkansas. Morris is probably more of a Saturday availability, if the Rebels advance to the semifinals.
