Players celebrate their win over Louisiana Lafayette in game 2. (Photo/Thomas Graning)
It came down to the last couple of innings, but Ole Miss kept the Omaha dream alive with a 5-2 win over Louisiana-Lafayette and forced a winner-take-all game three.
The Rebels starting pitcher, redshirt sophomore Christian Trent, pitched a gem in the elimination game going seven innings, giving up four hits, one run (none earned), with two walks and seven strikeouts. The Rebels needed a strong start from Trent to force a third game and they got just that.
“I went out there and I felt good,” Trent said. “I mainly used my fastball. Normally off-speed plays a bigger role than it usually does in the other games that I pitch, but tonight the fastball is what I used a lot.”
The Rebels got on the board first with an RBI double by senior Will Allen to score senior Austin Anderson from first to take the early 1-0 lead.
The Rebels would keep the lead until the fifth inning, where Dylan Butler of ULL doubled to left field to tie the game.
One of the many clutch moments for the Ole Miss offense came in the seventh inning, when senior Preston Overbey hit a homer to left field to give the lead back to Ole Miss 2-1.
“My job is when a pitcher makes a mistake to capitalize on it,” Overbey said. “It was a curveball that he (Carson Baranik) left up, and I put a pretty good swing on it.”
Louisiana-Lafayette would tie the game at two in the top of the eighth with an RBI single from Blake Trahan.
Errors cost Ole Miss the first game of the super regional, but an error in the outfield, a dropped fly ball by Seth Harrison of ULL hit by Will Allen, scored Austin Bousfield and gave Ole Miss the 3-2 lead.
The scoring would not stop for the Rebels, as pinch hitter Colby Bortles hit a two RBI single to center and scored Anderson and Allen to increase the lead to 5-2. This isn’t the first time Bortles came off the bench to produce clutch hits for the Rebels.
“I was looking for a fastball to drive to right-center and score a couple of runs,” Bortles said. “I got the pitch and I drove it right up the middle.”
Aaron Greenwood pitched the last two innings of the game and closed it out. He gave up one earned run in the eighth, walked one and struck out two.
The game one loss of the super regional for the Rebels was a tough one, but they showed toughness and resilience to bounce back and force a winner-take-all game three.
“The best way to start is to say I’m very proud of our guys, especially after a tough night last night, where I think we were all disappointed about the way we played, to come back and play well today and needed to play well against a good Louisiana-Lafayette team,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “Just a great college baseball game.”
There will be a lot of pressure on the Rebels to continue their momentum and finish the series, but they’re ready for it.
“That’s what we came here to do,” Overbey said about getting to Omaha. “We want to win two games and move on. I think it’s fair to say we’re confident, and we’ll be ready to play tomorrow.”
Game three will be at 6 p.m. Monday and will be televised on ESPN2.
– Dylan Rubino
dmsports@gmail.com
