Teammates congratulate Braxton Lee (11) after Lee’s game winning RBI single against Louisiana-Monroe Tuesday. Photo: Aditya Khare, The Daily Mississippian.
It took a ninth-inning rally, but the Ole Miss baseball team was able to come back and beat Louisiana-Monroe 5-4 in game one of a two-game midweek series. With the win the Rebels improved to 7-1 on the year, while the loss dropped the Warhawks to 4-4.
Ole Miss jumped on the board early with a two-run home run from junior center fielder Auston Bousfield in the bottom of the first, but Louisiana-Monroe would tack on four runs in the top of the second on an RBI single and a three-run double to gain the lead to 4-2. Ole Miss would pull within one in the fourth on a dropped third strike errant throw to first base that allowed the runner on third to score. For the next four innings, the Rebels would be shut down at the plate until late game heroics came into play.
First, freshman second baseman Dalton Dulin tied the game at four with an RBI groundout. Then, junior left fielder Braxton Lee ended the game on a ground ball to the shortstop that was thrown in the dirt to the first baseman and snuck by him allowing the winning run to score for the Rebels.
“I really thought it was all the at-bats,” Bianco said of the ninth inning rally. “Starting with (Colby) Bortles — freshman has a great at-bat and has a walk. Then Holt (Perdzock) gets up, another great at-bat and chinks one in. Then Errol (Robinson) comes up, another great at-bat and takes a breaking ball in the back. But then the speed took over.
“Dalton hits what looks like a routine double play ball, but he runs a great 90 to first and beats it out to tie the game up. Then of course Braxton (Lee) at the end. When he chopped that ball, I didn’t think he was going to have a play. He’s just too good down the baseline.”
Ole Miss starting pitcher sophomore right-hander Jacob Waguespack turned in four innings of work, giving up four runs on four hits with two strikeouts. Despite leaving the game with the Rebels trailing, the bullpen took over and kept the Rebels in the game, throwing five innings of one-hit, shutout baseball. Sophomore left-hander Matt Denny went three innings in relief and gave up just one hit with two strikeouts, and sophomore right-hander Preston Tarkington and freshman left-hander Wyatt Short closed out the game for Ole Miss.
“Terrific,” Bianco said of the bullpen. “To have these kinds of wins and have these kinds of comebacks, you always talk about the offense which is the obvious thing, but certainly, one of the most important ingredients is on the mound. You’ve got to put up some zeroes, and after the second, we put up a bunch of zeroes.
“It started with Denny, and I thought he looked terrific. I thought Preston was really sharp, and Wyatt Short, for his third outing of the year, looked really dominant.”
The Rebels will finish the series with Louisiana-Monroe today with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss baseball, follow @SigNewton_2 and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
— Matt Sigler
mcsigler@go.olemiss.edu
