No. 5 Ole Miss Rebels Take Series from Texas A&M

Two teams left it all on the diamond in the first two games of the series this weekend, and it was clear that the rubber match would be no different in Game 3. No. 5 Ole Miss fought tooth and nail with Texas A&M Saturday to walk away with a 7-6 victory.
Ole Miss (22-3, 4-2 SEC) fell behind the Aggies early but answered with an impressive offensive explosion, including home runs by Cole Zabowski and Tyler Keenan.
The Aggies scored in the first three innings of the game to have a 4-1 advantage. Ole Miss’ lone score came off the bat of Zabowski which was a towering shot to center field. In the fourth, Keenan joined the home run parade with a two-run shot of his own to score Will Golsan from second base, bringing the score to 4-3.
Ole Miss wasn’t done there. In the fifth, Thomas Dillard got on base by an error by the first baseman and later advanced to second on a throwing error by the pitcher. Zabowski flirted with his second bomb of the afternoon on a ball that hit off the wall for an RBI double, and Dillard came in to tie the game. Golsan didn’t leave Zaboswki on second long as he hit a single to bring him in to score.
Texas A&M scratched a run across to knot the game back up at 5 apiece. Ole Miss took the game over in the seventh as Dillard smashed a double down the left-field line. Golsan brought Dillard in on an RBI double down the line of right field. Chase Cockrell hit a single to left that pushed the Rebels lead out to 7-5.
The Rebels turned to the bullpen early in the game as head coach Mike Bianco called on three of the most dominant arms to close the door on the Aggies. In the fifth, Dallas Woolfolk came in to stop the bleeding after a leadoff double. He only allowed the inherited runner to come around to score. In the sixth, Woolfolk only faced four Aggie hitters and got through the frame with relative ease.
Will Ethridge entered after Woolfolk with back-to-back 1-2-3 frames with two strikeouts.
Parker Caracci was then called on to keep the Aggies at bay in the ninth. He faced the top of the order, and Texas A&M made the Rebel hurler work through four at-bats with six or more pitches. A&M scratched a run across the plate on a double off the wall putting the tying run at second. The winning run stood at the plate, but Caracci won the battle by a strikeout.

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Game 2 Wrap Up

Friday night, the Ole Miss Rebels rally came short against Texas A&M as the Aggies took the game 7-6.
Junior Michael Fitzsimmons crushed a ball into left field for a pinch-hit grand slam in the eighth to bring the Rebels within a run of tying the game.
Ole Miss brought sophomore Greer Holston out of the bullpen in the eighth, and he was lights out against the Aggie hitters, giving the Ole Miss offense a chance to tie the game in the final frame. Cole Zaboswki then delivered a double down the left field line in the ninth, but the Rebels couldn’t bring him around to score.
The Aggies took control early at Blue Bell Park with four runs in the second inning. Texas A&M took the lead on a two-run home run by first baseman Will Frizzell. The home team tacked on two more runs in the frame after three walks by starter Brady Feigl.
After a rough inning, Feigl found his rhythm. The junior out of Chesterfield, Missouri, struck out the first two batters in the third before inducing a Frizzell groundout to Jacob Adams for a 1-2-3 inning. Ole Miss chipped one away in the bottom half starting with a two-out single through the left side by Thomas Dillard. Will Golsan then came through, driving Dillard home on a double deep to left center off an 0-2 count.
Feigl retired the side in two of the next three innings to get Ole Miss to the seventh, down 5-1. Designated hitter Chase Cockrell started another two-out rally with a single to center, part of a three-for-three day for the junior. Cooper Johnson, hit one underneath the glove of Texas A&M shortstop Braden Shewmake to extend the inning. Jacob Adams made the Aggies pay for the error, sending a single up the middle to plate Cockrell and make it a 5-2 game.
The Aggies added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh, which proved to be the difference. Feigl’s day was finished after getting the first out of the seventh, but not before yielding a single to the Aggie leadoff hitter Zach DeLoach. Michael Helman doubled to left off of Will Stokes, eventually setting the table for a two-RBI single to center to make it a 7-2 contest.
In the seventh, Holston came in and inherited a bases-loaded jam with one down and escaped as he retired consecutive batters to close the frame. Nick Fortes opened the eighth taking a fastball off of his hand. Dillard took a ball off of his leg, and Cockrell found a way to have ducks on the pond after a full-count walk with two down in the inning. Fitzsimmons was then called on to hit for Johnson and drove a 2-1 pitch deep into the Texas night sky off the scoreboard.

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Game 1 Wrap Up

No. 5 Ole Miss rallied late in the eighth inning to secure a 5-4 victory over Texas A&M. 
The Rebels’ hurler, Parker Caracci, came into the game, escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth inning to shut the door on the Aggies.
Texas A&M struck first in the game on an errant throw by Nick Fortes on an inning-ending, 1-2-3 double play to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Fortes stepped to the plate in the third and redeemed himself by blasting a two-run, towering shot deep over the left-field wall. Ole Miss jumped out to a 2-1 lead.
Ole Miss’ starter LHP Ryan Rolison and the Aggies ace Stephen Kolek went back and forth before the Texas A&M offense chased Rolison in the fifth, after an RBI double by Braden Shoemake made it a 3-2 Aggie lead. Head coach Mike Bianco turned the ball over to Will Ethridge out of the pen first, and the sophomore didn’t disappoint. He allowed only one inherited runner to score to push the lead out to 4-2.
Ethridge fanned two in the fifth escaping a dangerous two-on, two-out situation. He sat down two more in the sixth as well as the final batter he faced in the seventh. The sophomore from Lilburn, Georgia finished with six strikeouts, no walks, two hits and no charged runs in three innings of work.
While the Aggies couldn’t seem to hit off the Rebel bullpen, the story was different when Texas A&M turned to its relievers. With Kolek out after striking out 10 in seven innings, Ole Miss jumped on reliever Nolan Hoffman in the eighth, starting with back-to-back singles by Grae Kessinger and Ryan Olenek. The top of the Rebel order continued to work as Fortes chopped one over the out-stretched glove of Aggie third baseman Allonte Wingate to send Kessinger home.
Then came the game’s biggest at-bat. Thomas Dillard singled to left field to score Olenek and tie the game. But when the ball skirted away from Aggie left fielder Logan Foster, Fortes wheeled around for what turned out to be the game-winning run.
Caracci got into a jam in the eighth inning as the Aggies loaded the bases on a wild, double-play sequence where Kessinger couldn’t make the out. The Aggies had great opportunity to tie the game or take the lead, but Caracci rose to the occasion and struck out the next two batters.
In the ninth, Caracci continued his dominance by retiring two of three Aggie batters by strikeout. He picked up his second save of the season with five strikeouts and no walks in two innings of work.
Ole Miss returns to the diamond Tuesday night as they play host to No. 15 Southern Miss at Swayze. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

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Adam Brown is the sports editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.