The No. 25 Southern Miss baseball team rallied, scoring seven unanswered to take down in-state foe Ole Miss 7-4 in front of the fifth-largest crowd in the history of Pete Taylor Park.
Ole Miss (27-25, 11-16 SEC), fresh off a big series win versus No. 5 Texas A&M, jumped off to a quick 4-0 lead and looked to silence the Golden Eagle faithful in attendance. Nonetheless, Southern Miss (35-17, 18-9 Sun Belt) found life offensively midway through the final midweek contest of the regular season and never looked back.
The seven unanswered runs
Despite cruising early in the game, Rebels pitcher Grayson Saunier showed some chinks in the armor in the fifth inning as he surrendered a run and loaded the bases. Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco turned to left-hander Gunnar Dennis to clean up the mess with a 4-2 lead, but the Southern Miss bats had just gotten started. An RBI hit by Carson Paetow and an RBI double from Nike Monistere knotted things up and gave Christian Ostrander’s crew all the momentum.
Southern Miss put more runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth courtesy of shortstop Ozzie Pratt extending his hitting streak to 14 games with a timely RBI along with a single from Paetow that scored two to give the team a lead that it would not relinquish.
What the coach said
Being ranked for the first time after winning eight in a row, Ostrander was proud to see his team maintain its composure despite trailing early.
“That’s a good ball club over there, but I am most proud of these guys staying the course,” the first-year Golden Eagles head coach said. “I think this team has shown the true characteristic of not letting it fall apart when you get down early like we did. I can see so many games where this team stays in the ring and gives themselves a chance.
The numbers never lie
Ole Miss, with five hits on the night, only put one ball in play after the second inning. After the Rebels’ hot start, Southern Miss turned to JB Middleton, Ben Riley Flowers, Josh Och, and Colby Allen to hold down the fort and the crew delivered favorable results. Middleton had a career-high in strikeouts with five in three innings pitched. Flowers was credited with the win and Allen got the save.
Ole Miss was led by third baseman Andrew Fischer who finished the midweek outing with two hits, one of which was a two-run home run in the top of the first. Paetow led Southern Miss with three hits, four RBIs, and one run scored.
Next up
Ole Miss, still in the driver’s seat to make it to Hoover to compete in the SEC Tournament, will travel to Baton Rouge, La. to take on LSU for the final three-game conference stint.
Southern Miss will host Texas State for its final Sun Belt outing of the regular season. A series win against the Bobcats would lock the Golden Eagles as the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
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