No. 9 Ole Miss remains undefeated after 9-1 win that clinches series over Tulane
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss baseball’s quest for a perfect season continues, as the team improves to 6-0 on the season after defeating Tulane 9-1 in the Rebels’ second game of the day. The victory, combined with a 5-4 win in game one, clinches the series for Ole Miss over the Green Wave.
Team captain Brady Feigl got the start on the mound in game two and had an impressive outing. He pitched six complete innings and only gave up a single unearned run which came in the first, allowing only two hits while on the mound today. Feigl, who is credited with the win, racked up six strikeouts, and did not walk a single batter.
“Efficient isn’t even fair,” Head coach Mike Bianco said as he described Feigl’s performance.
“I thought he was super dominant against what I consider a really good offense.”
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco on pitcher Brady Feigl
After trailing by one after the top of the first for the second consecutive game, Ole Miss responded for the second game in a row by tying it up in the bottom of the first. Grae Kessinger hit a bomb to left for his first homer of the year. It was also his 11th hit in the last five games.
“I knew it was gonna get out of here. I just want to keep up my approach, keep being aggressive and keep playing.”
Sophomore Grae Kessinger
Ole Miss takes the lead in the fourth inning
Ole Miss took the lead in the fourth after a leadoff double from Nick Fortes, who was brought home by a Will Golsan sac-fly. Golsan finished 1-3 with an RBI.
“Today I was really proud because, one, we came back and played well in the continuation of the first game,” Bianco said. “Game two we looked very businesslike, very mature.”
The Rebels really took control of the game in the fifth when they scored two runs–one off of Kessinger’s bat, again, when he hit an RBI double, and the second thanks to an RBI sac-fly from Ryan Olenek that made the score 4-1.
“[Kessinger] has had a lot of big hits for us already in just a couple of weekends,” Bianco said.
Parker Caracci took over on the mound in the seventh for Feigl and picked up right where he left off. Caracci struck out four out of the six batters he faced in his two innings of action and didn’t allow a hit.
“[Parker] was terrific,” Bianco said. “That wasn’t necessarily a surprise. That was electric stuff, and we’ve seen that in him, just not consistently.”
Rebs blow the game wide open in the sixth
As great as the fifth was for Ole Miss, the sixth blew it out of the water.
The Rebels scored five runs in the sixth inning. The fun began when Ole Miss had the bases loaded, and two wild pitches in a row from Tulane allowed two runs to score. That was followed by a Chase Cockrell RBI single, a Jacob Adams RBI sac-fly and an Olenek RBI double that made the game 9-1.
“I had to end my day a little early, we were scoring too many runs,” Feigl jokingly said, afterwards.
Next Up:
Ole Miss and Tulane meet back at Swayze on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. (CT).
Justin Dial is a junior at Ole Miss pursuing a Journalism degree. He is from Olive Branch, MS and is an avid fan of college and
professional football, basketball and baseball. Justin covered Ole Miss
Sports for the Daily Mississippian for one year, and he also works in the
University of Mississippi Writing Center helping students with their
writing assignments. He spent his childhood going to Ole Miss football
games with his grandfather and grandmother (an Ole Miss graduate).
Currently, his favorite favorite athletes are LeBron James and Marc Gasol. In Justin's free time he likes to play video games and listen to sports podcasts.