(Photo by: Cameron Brooks)
Will Golsan rounds first after a 2 RBI double in the second inning against Arkansas on Sunday.
Wyatt Short did not sleep much on Saturday night. Whether it was due to him learning hours earlier that he’d be making his first start since high school, or the fact that his arm was not not feeling 100 percent, it didn’t seem to matter. The junior right hander went 4.1 innings, and allowed two earned runs on six hits and two walks, and it put Ole Miss in a position to win its fifth consecutive game when he exited in the fifth to an ovation and a 6-3 lead.
“Honestly I wasn’t feeling my best today, but I bit the dirt and made some pitches, and guys made plays behind me, and I’m thankful for that,” Short said. “I just wasn’t feeling my best. My arm wasn’t feeling the best, but I made some pitches, Coach B stuck in there with me and so did the team.”
Short kept Arkansas off of the board in his first four innings, and received an early lead when Will Golsan ripped a 2 RBI double in the second, and J.B. Woodman followed up three batters later with a two-out, two-run home run to right field that capped off a four-run second inning for Ole Miss.
“I think just getting the swing short is the biggest thing I’m trying to work on,” Golsan said. “I got in the cages a few days ago, and just tried to shorten it up and hit a few balls to right-center.”
Golsan had four RBIs on the day.
Short was pulled in the fifth for Fayetteville Arkansas native, and freshman right hander Andy Pagnozzi as the Razorbacks were able to plate three runs, one of them being unearned.
(Photo by: Cameron Brooks)
J.B. Woodman and Errol Robinson celebrate after Woodman’s home run against Arkansas on Sunday.
Ole Miss answered in the bottom half of the inning with two of their own that started with a Tate Blackman RBI single to left field. Another run scored when Michael Fitzsimmons was hit by a pitch, and it allowed Ole Miss to extend its lead to 6-3.
Arkansas would again pull within a run in the seventh. Michael Penell doubled to the left-center gap that plated one, and the Razorbacks would get another on a passed ball that made it a 6-5 game. Pennell had 3 RBIs on the day. Chad Smith came on in relief of Pagnozzi in the inning after the Pernell double and a walk to Rick Nomura.
Smith kept Arkansas from tying the game by getting a ground ball out to get Ole Miss out of the inning.
“Terrific. We’re really proud of him,” Bianco said. “Smith was terrific, first appearance out of the pen and did what he was supposed to do. He got us out of that big inning and pumped the ball into the strike zone.”
Golsan recorded the second half of his 4 RBIs on a single down the left field line in the bottom half of the seventh that gave Ole Miss two insurance runs that it would end up needing.
“I think all of the hitting was good today,” Bianco said. “We looked like we have the last four or five games. We’ve really swung it well.”
Smith stayed in the game until the ninth when a Michael Bernal two-run home run cut the deficit to one for the third time in the ball game.
Will Stokes came on in relief for the fifth consecutive game and quickly ended the Razorback rally with a strike out and a ground ball that completed the Ole Miss sweep with the 8-7 win.
“He played catch before the game and said ‘I think i’m able to go. I think I can give you one,’” Bianco said. “We had Connor Green up as well, and once Stokes said ‘yeah I’m good. I can go’ we knew that if the tying run go to the plate, Stokes would take the ball.”
It was an important weekend for a team that came in with a new-look rotation, and had lost its last two series. Ole Miss improved to 25-7, and more importantly, got to .500 in SEC play at 6-6. It was the Rebels’ first SEC sweep since a home sweep of Mississippi State to end conference play in 2015.
“It was big weekend for us to just get back in the SEC and get three wins was huge for us.”, Golsan said. “A sweep is always good, especially at home in the SEC.”
Ole Miss returns to action on Wednesday against Southern Miss at home. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m
