Ole Miss rally falls short in Oxford Regional Championship

Murray State’s Jonathan Hogart said Sunday night that they were not supposed to be in the position they were in at the Oxford Regional. Ole Miss was not supposed to be here, either.

That is if you remember the the preseason projections and the Southeastern Conference coaches voting the Rebels to finish 15th out of 16 teams this year.

But then Ole Miss was a couple runs away from being one of the last 16 teams still standing and a chance to get to Omaha for the second time in three years. But the Racers were just the better team all weekend, beating the Rebels 12-11 on Monday to win the Oxford Regional Championship.

Even Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said as much in his postgame press conference. But Bianco and third baseman Luke Hill decided talk the season that was.

“From the beginning we were doubted,” Hill said. “There was no expectations form the outside perspective for this team. This team at the end of the day put their head down and went to work. I’ve never been around a group of guys that are so committed to their craft and so committed to their time and being here and wanted to perform for a great community”

After beating the Racers 19-8 on Sunday to force Monday’s winner-take-all the script was flipped and it was Murray State’s bats being the aggressor.

By the fifth inning the Racers had a 9-3 lead with 14 hits already and Ole Miss pitching was trying get over the whiplash they just experienced.

Walker Hooks got the start for the Rebels and was the most rested arm of the staff having thrown only six pitches this weekend. Mason Morris was a consideration and was the going to be one of the first two hit the mound but what order it was not determined until Monday.

Hooks got the call, lasting 2.1 innings and giving up five runs – all earned – off eight hits to put Ole Miss in an early hole that was too deep to get out off.

“We emptied the tank and when Joel (Mangrum) and I talked last night, it’s just too hard after the game. It’s really late,” Bianco said. “You’re asking these pitchers to do something they haven’t done all year. …Kudos to coach Mangrum being able to prepare them and have them in shape to be able to do some of this. But you can tell when guys are pitching second, third time out it’s just not the same stuff.”

Will McCausland, Riley Maddox and Mason Nichols worked 2.1 innings giving up three runs but kept the Murray State offense in check relative to how the game started.

In a surprise, sort of, Hunter Elliott made one final appearance this season at Swayze Field. With the game back to a one-run score the Rebels ace did his job retiring the side in order and getting a strikeout.

The eight runs in the seventh and eighth innings got Ole Miss back in the game but the nine-run deficit with nine outs to play with was ended up being a run too much to recover from.

“A very good offense on the other side. Man, did they hit and they hit really all weekend long. Even (Sunday) night,” Bianco said. “People forgot. We scored a ton of runs but so did they.”

So in the end Ole Miss sees its season come to a close at a destination it was never to supposed to reach, according to many. The result on Monday hurts but after where this program was the past two seasons it can still be considered a turnaround.