Rebels Dominate Princeton in Sweep

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

The No. 9 Ole Miss offense continued to be on display Sunday afternoon at Swayze as they pulled off the sweep of the Princeton Tigers with a 14-2 victory.

Ole Miss (14-1) belted four home runs off the bats of Peyton Chatagnier (2), Justin Bench and Anthony Servideo. The diamond Rebels have sent a total of 31 home runs sailing out of Swayze on the season, which leads the country.

The second baseman Chatagnier ended the day going 3-for-4 with two home runs and three RBIs.

“It was a really good day,” Chatagnier said. “I was seeing the ball well as JB and I got here. I said ‘today is our day. We got it today.’ We hit and played well and got it done.”

Junior shortstop Servideo leads the team in home runs with five on the year. He finished the day going 1-for-4 and scored twice with a home run and two RBIs.

The Rebels 14 runs came off of 15 hits against Princeton’s starters. Over three games Ole Miss’s offense scored 47 runs which is tied for the most in school history.

“We were terrific,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “The guys seem locked in with a lot of good swings to come from a lot of different people.”

Out of the 15 hits the Rebels had two doubles off the bats of Tyler Keenan and Cael Baker.

Keenan went 2-for-4 and came in to score twice with four RBIs.

Princeton tied the game in the second inning after they scratched two runs on a single off the bat of Sy Snedeker and a sac fly by David Harding.

Freshman Derek Diamond continued to have a successful outing on the bump in five-plus innings as he surrendered two runs on six hits. He picked up his second win on the season after fanning five Tigers and allowing one free pass.

“I felt great,” Diamond said. “We have SEC play coming up soon and with all the pitchers they are trying to extend us a little bit and push us out of our comfort zones. We are just working on getting ready for that.”

For the fourth weekend in a row all three starters have worked five or more innings in an outing.

“Another good outing by Derek,” Bianco said. “We try to be critical of these guys as they go into the sixth again. I am proud of him as he let a couple of hitters get away from him but ends up making pitches and gets off the field.”

Bianco brought in Wes Burton out of the bullpen in the sixth. Burton hurled one inning not giving a run or hit as he faced five batters. He sent two Tigers back to the dugout after striking out and allowed two walks.

In the seventh inning, Cole Baker entered the contest and faced the minimum with one strikeout.

Ole Miss’ pitchers struck out a total of eight Princeton sluggers on the afternoon.

The Rebels right fielder Tim Elko came into the weekend hitting at a .222 clip and expanded on his average to .317 on the season.

Princeton’s starter Conor Nolan (0-2) tossed three complete innings and gave up seven runs on seven hits. He struck out four batters.

Ole Miss returns to the diamond on Tuesday as they begin a two-game midweek tilt at Louisiana-Monroe. The first pitch is set for 6 p.m. and can be seen on the Warhawks all-access.

---