'You do the best you can': Ole Miss baseball trying to manage a season filled with disappointment

Minutes after Henry Travinski hit a three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning off a fastball served up by Mitch Murrell, Ole Miss was standing out in right field huddled around trying to digest another loss that was a sure-thing victory.

No. 1 LSU defeated the Rebels 7-6 to earn its first Southeastern Conference sweep of the season, though it should not have occurred. The Tigers were sitting on two outs and Travinski was down to his final strike when the winning swing connected.

Ole Miss was unable to score the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, which was standing on second base in the form of Calvin Harris with one out.

The story of the season has been summed up in many games this year but Sunday’s gut punch felt like the final knockout blow in a season filled body shots.

With each loss the players have come to speak with the media following home games and the mindset and attitude has slowly declined from upbeat defending national champions in February to players wandering through a lost season and no solution in sight to stop the bleeding.

“I don’t know. Win, I guess,” was the answer second baseman Peyton Chatagnier came up with following a loss to Arkansas a couple weeks back. The body language spoke louder volumes than the words Chatagnier managed to get out.

After Sunday’s game head coach Mike Bianco was the latest to try and put into words the downward spiral of the last month and a half.

“You do the best you can and, obviously, days like today it’s really hard,” Bianco said. “We talked about it often and to be able to get up the next day and compete. Talked a little bit about last year and what last year’s team was able to do. We talked about leadership and it was guys showing up every single day and being very consistent even when it was very bad.”

Last year’s Ole Miss was struggling at this time but there seemed to be louder voices coming from the clubhouse than this year.

The 2022 Ole Miss squad had a veteran Tim Elko who returned for one last run and was determined to not let the final chapter be a whimper. Then there were other upperclassmen of Kevin Graham and Justin Bench that echoed what Elko continued to tell his teammates on a daily basis.

There was even a players only-esque meeting held during the swoon of last April.

This year’s group of leaders that include Chatagnier, Jacob Gonzalez, and captain Garrett Wood have not seem as vocal – at least from the outside looking in.

Though internally there seems to be those trying to keep the focus.

“You got a lot of guys,” said Judd Utermark on Sunday. “Garrett Wood, our captain obviously. He’s a guy a really look up to. He’s always been there, especially for me early on. …He’s carrying us through that. Calvin Harris is carrying us through that. Guys like that. Peyton. Just list off all the older guys, they’ve all done a really good job of making sure we have our heads on straight.”

The Rebels are in the final month of the season and currently at the bottom of the SEC looking up.

With 12 SEC games left, starting with Georgia this weekend, Ole Miss is sitting two games behind 13th place Missouri and three games behind 12th place Mississippi State, which is the threshold to make Hoover and the SEC Tournament.

The Bulldogs also have the tiebreaker after taking the series over Ole Miss two weekends ago in Starkville. Both meet on Tuesday in Pearl for the annual Governor’s Cup at Trustmark Park.

Work is to be done but the Rebels have opportunities to at least get to the conference tournament and see where the chips fall. Series with a surging Georgia and the Tigers over the next two weeks will be crucial.