Ole Miss has a history of dropping the first game of a super regional, and it continued Saturday as they fell to Louisiana-Lafayette 9-5.
The Rebels got off to a fast start, scoring three runs in the second inning with RBI singles from senior Preston Overbey, freshman Errol Robinson and a sacrifice fly from junior Auston Bousfield. Louisiana-Lafayette would later score a run in the second from a dropped fly ball by Bousfield to make it 3-1.
The Ragin’ Cajuns would tag on five runs in the third to take a 6-3 lead, which included a home run and a controversial balk call on senior left-handed pitcher Jeremy Massie.
Junior Braxton Lee tripled in the fourth to bring in Robinson to cut the ULL lead to 6-4.
The Cajuns scored three runs in the fifth, which included another solo home run to make the lead 9-4.
Ole Miss would add a run in the seventh inning, but it wouldn’t matter as the Ragin’ Cajuns would take the 1-0 series advantage and move one win away from a trip to Omaha.
It was a short outing for the Rebels’ starter, junior right-handed pitcher Chris Ellis, who only pitched 2.1 innings, giving up five runs, four earned, with three walks and two strikeouts. Ellis struggled with his location and command on his pitches after settling in nice in the first inning.
“Throwing strikes, I guess. I had a little trouble with that,” Ellis said. “I got myself in a lot of trouble.”
Louisiana-Lafayette is the best offensive team in the country, and they put on a complete, all-around offensive performance by playing small ball and using the long ball at the same time.
“You don’t see that very often,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “There’s people that play the short game, but not like that. They got a lot of good hitters in their lineup. They handle a lot of different pitches. I don’t know if people give them enough credit with how well they do hit. They beat us. They got 11 hits. I felt we gave them too many opportunities and that’s what we talked about all week - to limit their opportunities.”
The next game of the super regional series will start at 8 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2.
– Dylan Rubino
dmsports@gmail.com
