By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
No. 4 Ole Miss’ offense continued to remain hot against the Arkansas State Red Wolves in an 11-3 victory on Tuesday.
Ole Miss (4-0) trailed for the first time this season by a run in the first as Will French scored for Arkansas State. The Rebels quickly responded with two in their first at-bat.
The Rebels added to their home run mark to open the season with three more smashed on the evening. The home runs were hit by Will Furniss, Tywone Malone and Kemp Alderman. On the season, Ole Miss has had 11 home runs leave the yard at Swayze.
Ole Miss got its first two home runs in the second on back-to-back by Furniss and Malone.
Freshman right-hander JT Quinn got the start against the Red Wolves. After a slow start, in the first Quinn settled in and kept ASU off the scoreboard.
Arkansas State (3-1) got runners to second and third in the fourth as they tried to cut into the Rebels’ 5-1 advantage.
The Rebels extended their lead in the fourth as three doubles off the barrel of Peyton Chatagnier, Ethan Groff and Alderman. Ole Miss went up 8-1.
Coach Mike Bianco made the call to the bullpen in the fifth and brought in senior right-hander Mitch Murrell. Murrell worked the remaining of the inning and surrendered no runs on two hits with two strikeouts.
Quinn worked 4.1 innings and surrendered three runs on three hits while recording five strikeouts on four walks.
Arkansas State scored two runs in the fifth on two base knock RBIs by Brandon Hager and Daedrick Cail that made it 8-3 Ole Miss.
Ole Miss responded with three more runs in the fifth after a walk to Groff who came into score on a double by Jacob Gonzalez and Alderman to go up 11-3.
Murrell turned the ball over to freshman right-hander Brayden Jones who made his debut and tossed an inning.
In the seventh, Cole Ketchum took the mound for the Rebels. Ketchum worked a frame not allowing a run or a hit before he gave the ball to Cole Tolbert. The Red Wolves loaded the bases and Ole Miss brought in Sam Tookoian to the bump. Tookoian got the Rebels out of a bases-loaded jam by recording two strikeouts.
In the ninth, Mason Nicholas came in for the final three outs of the game.
Ole Miss had seven different pitchers against the Red Wolves and struck out 11 sluggers.
Ole Miss returns to the diamond on Friday as they play host to No. 13 Maryland from the Big Ten in a three-game series tilt. The first pitch is set for 4 p.m. and can be streamed on the SEC Network+.
