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WATCH: Ole Miss baseball is a win away from advancing in the postseason

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•06/05/22•

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Hunter Elliott
Ole Miss freshman pitcher Hunter Elliott

Ole Miss Sports Production provided the included video. Ole Miss Athletics Media Relations provided the story.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Ole Miss and No. 6 Miami traded scoreless frames back and forth until the sixth inning, when the Hurricanes took a brief lead and the Rebels responded in kind to pull out a 2-1 win Sunday night.

Ole Miss now heads to the NCAA Coral Gables Regional Final at Mark Light Field.
 
True freshman Hunter Elliott looked anything but a rookie in taking the hill in the postseason for the first time in his career.

The Tupelo, Mississippi, native tossed five frames and allowed just one run. He struck out eight.

Fellow freshman Mason Nichols retired all seven batters he faced before handing the ball to Brandon Johnson, who locked up his 11th save of the season and second in as many days.

As a staff, Ole Miss held ACC champion Miami to a season-low four hits.

The Rebels struck out 14 Hurricanes. Ole Miss pitchers have racked up 35 strikeouts in 18 innings at the Coral Gables Regional.
 
Captain Tim Elko led the charge for the Rebels offensively and came through when he was needed most. Elko, a senior, reached base in all four of his plate appearances.

Elko was 2 for 2 with a pair of walks and the game’s biggest knock, a two-run, opposite-field gapper in the seventh inning.

Elliott had to work his way out of trouble in the early going.

He allowed the Hurricanes to load the bases in the first inning on a bunt single and a pair of walks. However, the freshman escaped the jam brilliantly by striking out three of the last four batters.
 
After that, Elliott settled into a pitcher’s duel with Miami hurler Carson Palmquist. The two lefties traded zeroes into the middle innings, when the Hurricanes finally broke through.
 
Following a walk and a wild pitch, Hayden Leatherwood was unable to hang onto a liner to right field, putting runners at the corners with nobody out. That brought Nichols out of the bullpen, and the true freshman worked well to limit the damage and surrendered a single run on a sacrifice fly.
 
Ole Miss looked set to respond in the bottom half by putting two in scoring position on Jacob Gonzalez’s leadoff single, Elko’s walk and a wild pitch. However, the Rebels couldn’t cash in and left the bases loaded with three consecutive strikeouts.

While the opportunity slipped in the sixth, it didn’t in the seventh.

Ole Miss put together a two-out rally.

Bench and Gonzalez notched back-to-back singles, and Elko shot a ball the other way into the right-center gap to bring both home. Just like that, a 1-0 deficit became a 2-1 lead.
 
With the lead in hand, Nichols got the first out of the eighth inning, and from there, it was Johnson’s time.
 
After collecting the final two outs of the eighth, a one-out double in the ninth put the tying run on for the Hurricanes.

Johnson produced the goods with his back against the wall.

The TV designation for Monday’s game is yet to be determined. The call can be heard through the Ole Miss Radio Network.

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