At the end of a series defined by back-and-forth offensive explosions, No. 5 Ole Miss baseball defeated No. 12 Texas A&M 7-6 on Saturday to take the three-game road series 2-1 and improve to 22-3 on the season.
Entering the early-weekend series, Ole Miss skeptics pointed to a lack of strong early-season opponents and questioned the team’s ability to step up against other top SEC teams. That doubt was quickly silenced Thursday, when the Rebels took a tense Game 1 pitchers’ duel in comeback fashion.
Through the first seven innings, A&M’s Stephen Kolek was dominant and struck out 10 Rebel batters. Although he allowed only four hits, he conceded two runs on a third-inning Will Golsan home run. Meanwhile, Ole Miss’ Ryan Rolison gave up four runs in only four innings of work, and the Rebels found themselves down 4-2 entering the eighth.
In Kolek’s relief, Nolan Hoffman took the mound for A&M, and Ole Miss’ bats went to work. After starting the inning with back-to-back singles by Grae Kessinger and Ryan Olenek, Fortes knocked Kessinger home on a chopper up the third base line and brought Thomas Dillard to the plate.
Catcher Cooper Johnson (left), head coach Mike Bianco (middle) and pitcher Ryan Rolison (right) talk on the mound during Ole Miss’ game against Texas Tech Saturday, March 4, at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Texas Tech would go on to defeat Ole Miss 5-1. (Photo by: Cameron Brooks)
Extending his 12-game hitting streak, Dillard singled to left field, scored Olenek and tied the game. But when the ball got away from the Aggies’ left fielder, Fortes turned for home and scored the eventual game-winning run.
To close out the 5-4 Rebel victory, redshirt sophomore reliever Parker Caracci earned his second career save and struck out five in two innings, including Texas A&M’s No. 3 and 4 hitters back to back.
Although the one-run win result turned in A&M’s favor, Friday’s game came with equal eighth-inning excitement.
Struggling to find his rhythm early, Brady Feigl allowed four runs in the second inning and gave the Aggies, who extended their lead with a run in the fifth inning and two in the seventh, control of the game. Ole Miss was able to chip off one run in the third and another in the seventh but found itself down 7-2 entering the eighth.
Beginning the inning, Fortes took a fastball to his hand and Dillard reached base by taking a pitch to the leg. After a two-out walk, pinch hitter Michael Fitzsimmons entered the box with the bases juiced and smashed a 2-1 offering off the scoreboard in left field.
The Rebels took the 7-6 deficit into the bottom half of inning, in which Greer Holston sat down the heart of the Aggies’ order but could not extend the game in the ninth and dropped their third game of 2018.
A wild Saturday in College Station closed out the series. In a game in which both teams combined for 13 runs and 27 hits, Ole Miss relied on its relief pitching to grind out the 7-6 rubber match victory.
Starting pitcher James McArthur gave up two runs on three hits and was relieved after only 1.1 innings, giving way to the dominant Ole Miss bullpen.
Although the Rebels fell behind early, they claimed the lead on a profound day at the plate that included a solo shot by Cole Zabowski in the second and a two-run dinger from Tyler Keenan in the fourth, which left them down only one. Dillard reached base on a fielding error and began a two-out rally in the fifth, which Zabowski followed up with a game-tying RBI double off the wall. On the next pitch, Golsan singled to right field, scored Zabowski and gave Ole Miss a 5-4 lead.
A&M tied the game in the bottom half, but Ole Miss regained control in the seventh when Golsan hit his second RBI double of the game and scored Dillard, who extended his hitting streak to 14 games. Later in the inning, a bloop single scored Golsan for what was ultimately the game’s deciding run, which put the Rebels ahead 7-5.
While the offense delivered, Dallas Woolfolk came on in the fifth, pitched two dominant innings and allowed no runs or walks and three hits en route to his first win of the 2018 season. In his succession, 6-foot-5 Will Ethridge took the ball and turned in back-to-back 1-2-3 innings.
From there, it was the Caracci show once more. Tasked with facing the top of the A&M order, the Friday night star worked through four at-bats of six or more pitches and allowed one run to score but culminated the series with a full-count strikeout with the winning run at the plate.
After asserting its dominance with the weekend series win, Ole Miss sits at 22-3 on the season and returns home Tuesday to face No. 16 Southern Mississippi.
