No. 9 Ole Miss Defeats Little Rock

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

No. 9 Ole Miss used a big seventh inning offensive performance against the Little Rock Trojans in an 11-6 win on Tuesday night.

Ole Miss (27-10, 9-6 SEC) got the bats going early in the first two frames as they scored three runs in each inning. 

Ole Miss got four doubles in the game from the barrels of Kevin Graham, Jacob Gonzalez, John Rhys Plumlee and Knox Loposer against the Trojans.

In the first inning, TJ McCants started off with an infield single followed by a walk and a hit by the pitch to Peyton Chatagnier and Gonzalez respectively. Graham drove a double to the wall in right field that scored two runs. Gonzalez came home on a sac fly off the bat of Ben Van Cleve to center.

Ole Miss’ starter Jack Dougherty made his first career start for the Rebels. Daugherty allowed two hits in the first two frames.

Little Rock got on the board in the second after back-to-back walks Christian Bernabe down the left-field line that cleared the bases.

The Trojans leadoff batter Nathan Lyons went 2-for-5 with a triple and a single.

Dougherty worked 1.2 innings and surrendered two runs on two hits, two walks and three strikeouts on the evening.

“I thought he looked good again,” head coach Mike Bianco said. 

Bianco brought Tyler Myers to the mound following the Trojans double. Myers tossed 1.1 innings surrendered a run on two hits and a strikeout.

Little Rock scored two runs in the fifth and their final run crossed the dish in the eighth inning.

The Rebels scored their final four runs of the game in the seventh inning as nine batters came to the plate and Knox Loposer got an RBI double followed by a base rip by Plumlee.

Plumlee finished the night going 2-for-2 with a double and two walks got on base four times and scored twice.

“I thought he was terrific,” Bianco said. “He won the game shirt tonight. He did not give up an at-bat. He competed. John Rhys locked in and was terrific.”

The Rebels used Cody Adcock (1.0), Brandon Johnson (1.0), Jackson Kimbrell (1.0), Braden Forsyth (1.0), Wes Burton (1.0) and Derek Diamond (1.0).

As a staff, Ole Miss retired a total of 17 Little Rock batters on the night.

Ole Miss returns to action on Thursday night as they start a three-game series with the LSU Tigers at Swayze. The first pitch is set for 7 p.m. on ESPNU.