‘Smoking-hot’ Lege, Ole Miss baseball offense back Saunier for first series sweep of 2024

Ole Miss hit three home runs to back a strong start from Grayson Saunier, as the Rebels claimed their first sweep of the season with a 6-5 win over Morehead State on Sunday.

Ole Miss (12-5) has now won six straight games and 10 of its last 11. The Rebels secured their first sweep of the year and took their third straight series.

Saunier (3-1) got the win. The sophomore right-hander gave up no runs on three hits with three strikeouts and a walk over his 5.0 innings. Ethan Lege recorded his third home run in his last four games.

“Felt like I could have gone maybe one more,” Saunier said. Sunday was Saunier’s second start in a row going at least 5.0 innings. “It was good to get some other guys some innings and let them pitch. But I felt good. I don’t think I had my best stuff today. Velo was a little down. Stuff wasn’t as good today, but, overall, thought I competed well.”

Right fielder said, "Hmmm, nah."

🚀 @sirfischer3 pic.twitter.com/3KriblsFQP

— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) March 10, 2024

Duke transfer Andrew Fischer’s sixth home run of the season gave Ole Miss an early 2-0 lead. 

The blast, an opposite-field shot to right, left Fischer’s bat at 108 mph and traveled an estimated 394 feet. Lege’s was clocked at 106 and went 384 — only to left field and an inning later, in the second.

Ole Miss led 6-0 when Saunier gave way to true freshman reliever Austin Simmons to start the sixth. However, Simmons, who also doubles as a quarterback for the Ole Miss football team, had his toughest outing of his young Rebel career. 

He lasted just two-thirds of an inning and was tagged for a pair of runs on three hits and two walks. He struck out one of the seven total batters he faced and left the bases loaded with two outs. 

Mason Morris ended the threat with a three-pitch final out. He handled the seventh, too. Morris never allowed an Eagle to reach base and struck out two of four.

“I thought he was the difference-maker,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco, in his 24th season leading the Rebels, said. “That’ll be the thing that gets lost in the box score. They’ll remember home runs and the last out, but he comes in with the bases loaded and gets us off the field and has a 1-2-3 inning in the next inning. You look up and you win by one run. 

“It was a huge deal.”

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Will Furniss homered again, his fourth. The sophomore is slugging .625 on the season, the fourth-best mark among Rebels.

Lege and FAU transfer slugger Jackson Ross are tied for the team lead at .736 apiece.

Ross is hitting .396 on the year. He had a hit and two walks in two official at-bats in Sunday’s win over Morehead State. The Eagles, last season, won the Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship for the first time since 1979. They fell to 7-8 this season.

Ole Miss run-ruled Morehead State in Game Two on Saturday. Coastal Carolina transfer left-hander Liam Doyle, in his first turn as a weekend starter, surrendered three hits but no runs with eight strikeouts and a walk over 3.1 innings.

The Rebels will host ULM on Tuesday before opening SEC play at home against South Carolina next weekend.

“It’s super impressive watching guys on our team put together good at-bats,” Fischer said. “Ethan Lege is smoking-hot right now. Having guys in your order like that is big time for a team. Keep swinging it and moving forward game to game. If we keep putting good at-bats together, we’re going to keep winning.”