Freshman catcher Cooper Johnson leads off first base during Sunday’s game against University of North Carolina Wilmington. (Photo by: Cameron Brooks)
Grae Kessinger took a step to his left toward the bag at second and leaped up, snagging a sharply hit baseball by UNC-Wilmington first baseman Mason Berne, robbing him of a double and likely saving two runs as Ole Miss was able to get out a sixth inning jam unscathed and went on to win the game 8-6, completing a weekend sweep of the 24th-ranked Seahawks.
“The line drive– it was just great timing,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “He has those instincts, and to jump and to catch the ball, it’s two runs if that ball gets into the gap, which it was; there is no doubt. That was a big play.”
At the time, Ole Miss was firmly in control with a 6-1 lead, and a sweep looked imminent. But UNC-Wilmington didn’t go down quietly. The Seahawks scored four runs in the ninth inning off Rebel reliever Connor Green and brought the tying run to the plate a couple of times by cutting the lead to 8-6. Bianco then brought in Dallas Woolfolk, who recorded his third save of the season and got the Rebels out of another late-inning pinch to preserve the team’s seventh consecutive win to begin the year.
“It’s a scary, physical lineup, and for Dallas to come in… I don’t know what the speed of the last pitch was, but two pitches before that he threw a fastball that came in at 95, and that is really good stuff coming in there,” Bianco said of his sophomore reliever, who’s gotten Ole Miss out of some tight spots early on in this season.
Ole Miss jumped on the Seahawks quickly Sunday afternoon by throwing up a five spot in the third inning to take a comfortable lead on RBI base hits from Ryan Olenek and Cole Zabowski and then a towering two-run home run over the left field fence from Colby Bortles.
“It’s always good to see a couple of hits. I felt like I was swinging it well and had some tough breaks swinging at a couple of bad pitches. I was just trying to keep my head more still up there and swing at the right pitches,” Bortles said. “I feel like I did that today.”
Bortles had four hits and a home run in this series after getting off to a bit of a sluggish start on opening weekend. He and Tate Blackman both had three-hit days on Saturday and each had a hit in the series finale.
“I’d rather them get off to slow starts because you know, one, that they are eventually going to get out of it, and two, that they can really play. I am happy that the younger guys have gotten off to some good starts, but we certainly needed that day today out of Colby with a big home run and a sac fly,” Bianco said.
Despite flirting with disaster in the ninth, Ole Miss gave itself a big enough cushion to hang on and complete the sweep of a very good UNC-Wilmington team.
Analysis
Ole Miss made another statement by sweeping a UNC-Wilmington team that returned seven starters from a regional team in 2016 and possessed one of the best offenses in college baseball. The Seahawks team batting average a year ago was .32o and it averaged eight runs a game. The Rebels’ pitching staff held that offense largely in check. David Parkinson and James McArthur each went six innings on Friday and Saturday. McArthur yielded just one run on two hits and struck out 11 hitters, while Parkinson surrendered just two runs on three hits and whiffed six.
Brady Feigl went five innings and allowed a single run on three hits Sunday.
“You’ve got to be pleased through seven games and two weekends,” Bianco said. “It’s not coach speak, but we have a ways to go. There are some things that we have to clean up in lot of areas, but it is hard to imagine that we could have done much better against some really good competition. It is one thing to win seven games, but six of them against teams that are ranked in the top 25. I am really proud of them.”
The offense wasn’t far behind the quality pitching that Ole Miss got out of both its starters and its bullpen, and it was again sparked by freshmen hitters. Cole Zabowski had four hits on Saturday and five total on the weekend. Thomas Dillard hit his first career home run, and so did Chase Cockrell as part of a 2-4 performance on Friday.
Blackman and Bortles went a combined 6-10 in the Saturday game, which is certainly a positive sign moving forward concerning two of the Rebels’ veteran hitters.
More so than anything, this young team has showed its resiliency. Ole Miss trailed for just an inning and a half all weekend against UNC-Wilmingon, and it was a similar story against East Carolina last weekend. Every time the Rebels have gotten down or the opponent has put up a big inning, Ole Miss has answered right back. It has shown the ability to break out for four and five run innings. Like in the Saturday game, when the Seahawks scored three in the eighth to take a one-run lead, the Rebels matched that with five of their own in the bottom half of the inning.
“We’re just resilient. Every time we get punched in the mouth, we bounce right back,” Kessinger said. “We’ve been doing it all year. We’ve got good team chemistry, and we’re always there to keep each other up, and hopefully we can keep that up.”
Another tough test lies ahead for this team next weekend at Minute Maid Park in Houston after a midweek game with Memphis. Ole Miss will play top-ranked TCU, a Texas Tech team coming off a College World Series appearance a season ago and a Baylor team with a lot of confidence.
“We just want to keep playing good baseball,” Kessinger said. “Come out, practice, get our work in and get ready for Memphis and then worry about our Houston trip after that.”
