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Riley Maddox and the offense lifts No. 23 Ole Miss past No. 9 Vanderbilt for key SEC series win

11by:Jake Thompson•04/26/25•

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Ole Miss infielder Judd Utermark. Mandatory credit: Ole Miss athletics

If last week was considered a disaster for No. 23 Ole Miss then this week must be viewed as a total and complete success, so far.

The Rebels defeated No. 9 Vanderbilt, 7-1, on Saturday to take the series and go to 3-0 on the week. The win was their fourth straight, dating back to last Saturday at South Carolina, and all against SEC opponents.

Whatever was effecting Ole Miss (31-12, 12-8 SEC) has vanished and the team is playing like it was before the loss to Little Rock and trip to Columbia.

“We didn’t lose the games because we weren’t focused,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said of last week. “It wasn’t because we didn’t play hard or try. Sometimes it happens. You want to look at it statistically, we didn’t hit it. That’s for sure. But, it’s a team sport and there’s plenty of games where we’ve hit and we didn’t pitch well enough. At the end of the day there’s ebbs and flows to a season. I know people don’t like that, and I’m sorry for that, but it’s part of it.”

On Saturday the Rebels were hitting and pitching it well.

Nearly a year ago Riley Maddox set a career-high for an outing, going seven innings in Hoover against Mississippi State at the SEC Tournament. He did it once again against the Commodores (30-13, 11-9), giving up a run off four hits, striking out five and zero walks.

Maddox’s outing was the longest by an Ole Miss starter this season and it came at the right time.

“I think when I don’t walk people, like I have in the last several weeks, good things happen,” Maddox said. “We knew was the scouting report was on them and we just kind just went with it and I finally executed like I wanted to.”

Brayden Jones and Connor Spencer worked the final two innings with Spencer coming in to get the final out when Vanderbilt had the bases loaded in the ninth. He threw four pitches, making his availability for Sunday’s game a possibility.

Vanderbilt starter Cody Bowker looked like he might also cruise through his outing after the first time through the lineup. But then Rebels bats woke up with six runs in the fourth inning and another run in the fifth.

Judd Utermark hit the solo shot in the fifth while Ryan Moerman’s three-run home run helped fuel the crooked number the inning prior. Ole Miss finished with eight hits in the game.

“We know how good we are,” Moerman said. “Good teams, they fail sometimes as well. We just stuck together as a team. Keep trying to come to practice every single day and get better.”

Ole Miss goes for its second sweep in an SEC series this season on Sunday. First pitch set for 1:30 p.m. CT.

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