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The youth come through for No. 17 Ole Miss with comeback walk-off win over Murray State

11by:Jake Thompson•about 12 hours•

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Ole Miss pitcher Taylor Rabe. Mandatory credit: Ole Miss athletics

For Ole Miss baseball the kids are alright.

Redshirt freshman pitcher Taylor Rabe made his career debut while true freshman Hayden Federico and Owen Paino came thru in clutch at-bats as the No. 17 Rebels beat Murray State, 8-7, in 10 innings.

After going a combined 0-for-9 in the game Paino’s first hit came in in the bottom of the 10th with a single that moved second baseman Brayden Randle to third base. Federico’s first hit of the night scored Randle for the comeback walk-off win.

The young players looked like freshmen most of the game but showed the maturity expected of them when it mattered most. Something that could pay dividends next weekend when Southeastern Conference play starts.

“It was a tough night at the beginning but at the end of the day the game’s on the line and you’ve got to put all that beside you and you gotta go win the game for your team somehow,” Federico said. “All I had to do was hit a SAC-fly or something and just do my job. It ended up working out.”

Federico saw a changeup off Murray State’s Jack Wada and that was all it took for Ole Miss (11-1) to keep its winning streak alive, extending it to 10 games and undefeated at home to start the season.

Judd Utermark set up the comeback with his team-best seventh home run of the season, hitting a solo shot to left field in the bottom of the eighth to make it a two-run game. He also hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The heroics should not have been needed, though, as the Rebels blew a three-run lead by allowing the Racers (7-1) to scored six runs in the seventh inning and take a three-run lead of their own.

Freshman Cade Townsend started the inning but was replaced by Brayden Jones with bases loaded. This was a situation Jones inherited in a previous game this year and got off the field unscathed. The same could not be said today as Murray State scored three runs off four hits in 0.1 inning of work. Gunnar Dennis came in to try and clean up the trouble but got tagged for two runs, himself.

“We opened the door in the seventh on the mound,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “We give them three base runners and then we don’t make a play. Then we shoot our best bullet in (Jones) and they get five hits. They kind of took the momentum and ran with it. …Disappointed in the way we played, proud the way we came back and played.”

For Rabe, it was a start that has been nearly two years in the making. On Wednesday he returned from an injury suffered at the start of last season, sidelining him for the entire 2024 campaign. The last time he took the mound was May of 2023 as a high school freshman.

Due to all those factors Rabe was on a short leash with either two innings or 40 pitches, whichever game first. Turned out it was the innings as he needed only 18 pitches to get through six outs. Fourteen of those were for strikes.

“I wasn’t that nervous,” Rabe said. “I was really, really excited. The last two nights it was hard to sleep a little bit and I was just really looking forward to getting back out here. Especially pitching well and I just want to help the team.”

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