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Epic Ole Miss Day: First SEC series sweep for Rebel baseball since 2022

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•03/23/25•

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Ole Miss sluggers Ryan Moerman and Isaac Humphrey (Photo credit: Ole Miss baseball/X)

Ole Miss baseball Sunday at Missouri secured its first SEC series sweep in some three years to contribute to an historic day in Rebel sports.

The Rebels (18-5, 4-2 SEC) concluded a three-day offensive barrage with a 14-6 bludgeoning of the Tigers (8-14, 0-6) in the series finale. Ole Miss scored 40 runs over the weekend, the most in a conference series since 2019. The Rebels went to Columbia on a three-game losing streak.

Louisville transfer slugger Isaac Humphrey was 2 for 5 with a home run and five RBI. He finished the weekend a combined 6 for 15 with four home runs and 13 RBI. Humphrey homered twice on Saturday.

Fellow transfers Luke Cheng (Illinois State) and Ryan Moerman (Illinois) also went deep, while veteran Judd Utermark was 3 for 5. Ole Miss next hosts Memphis Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Missouri scored first, which the Tigers hadn’t done all weekend. Mateo Serna, the second batter of the game, hit a solo home run.

Ole Miss had just one baserunner through the first two innings until Cheng came to the plate in the third. He tied the game at 1-1 with his first home run of the season, sending the second pitch he saw over the fence in right field.

The Tigers responded with four runs in the bottom of the third, headlined by a three-RBI home run to right-center by Jackson Lovich. But as was the case all weekend, the Ole Miss offense had a response.

With one out in the fourth, Utermark singled and moved to third on a pinch-hit double by Will Furniss. Hayden Federico was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Humphrey, the Ole Miss center fielder. 

Humphrey cleared the bases with a double to right-center, cutting the Missouri lead to one. 

Cheng tied the game for the second time, trading places with Humphrey on a double down the left field line. Moerman gave the Rebels their first lead of the game with a solo home run to left field in the fifth inning, his ninth of the season.

Nichols settled in over his final two innings of work, retiring the final seven batters he faced and reaching the five-inning mark for the first time this season. He did not issue a walk during his outing and would leave the game with a 6-5 lead intact.

Humphrey hit his fourth home run of the weekend in the seventh inning, a two-RBI shot to right-center, to jump start what would end up being a four-run inning for the Rebels. Ole Miss second baseman Luke Hill hit an RBI triple and Mitchell Sanford drove in another run to make it 10-5.

Sanford has started every game for Ole Miss this season following an off-season transfer from New Orleans. He has 13 hits, five runs, 16 RBI, three triples and two home runs over his last eight games.

The Rebels scored four more runs in the top of the ninth behind a bases-clearing double from Sanford and a Missouri error.

WHAT THEY SAID

UTERMARK: Sweeps are big, and this is actually my first SEC sweep of my career, so I’m super stoked. Super important. We played well against Arkansas minus Saturday. I thought we played pretty good baseball, but it was really just having consistency, right? I thought we did a good job this weekend.

NICHOLS (5.0 innings, six hits, five runs, five strikeouts, no walks)

ON HIS PERFORMANCE: Probably not my greatest stuff, performance there at the beginning. But I’m really proud of the way I responded those last two innings. The team needed that. That’s what I’m here for. That’s my job on Sundays — to give us a chance. I’m glad that I helped that effort.

ON THE OLE MISS SWEEP: Being a senior in the mix, I know how important sweeps are. I know how important winning on the road is. People don’t give this place enough credit. People don’t win a lot of games here for whatever reason. It took a lot of focus, and it showed we’re an older team that can do that. I’m proud of that. I’m as proud of that as anything we’ve done this year. Because sweeps are important, but definitely sweeping here. Tough place. Three consecutive good days for us.

OLE MISS HEAD COACH MIKE BIANCO

ON THE WIN: It was another tough day to pitch. Tough inning there in the third. Credit them; that’s a good offense in that other dugout. It was a tough day to pitch with the wind blowing. 

But just really proud of Mason — the way he responded after that. And then, of course, the offense was just tremendous all weekend. I think we scored 40 runs in three games. Once we got back into it, Mase almost hit another gear, and we needed that today. The bullpen was a little depleted over the first couple days. You never know how it’s going to end up, and we end up only using two guys. (Will) McClausland was tremendous the last four innings. Really good performance by both guys.

ON THE SWEEP: It was a really mature day for us. It didn’t start off good. The pitcher they threw was a little sneaky fast. We struggled the first couple of innings offensively. Once they pulled him out, all the sudden we kind of hit another gear offensively and started to look like we’ve looked over the last 48 hours. Proud of them. The sweeps are few and far between. To get back into the race, I thought, was huge for us.

WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE

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