Rebels Walk Past ULM, 10-2
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss took what it was given and did not give back much Tuesday at Swayze Field.
The Rebels were issued 13 walks while their pitching staff struck out 17 in an Ole Miss 10-2 win over Louisiana-Monroe. Second-ranked Ole Miss improved to 7-0 on the year, while the Warhawks fell to 1-5.
In his college starting debut on the mound, Hunter Elliott (1-0) showed no freshman jitters. The Tupelo native recorded the first seven outs of the game via strikeout. The lefty went four innings, fanning nine and giving up three hits.
The Warhawks manufactured a run in the top of the first. Trace Henry drew a one-out walk and an out later stole second base to get into scoring position. Mason Holt followed with a single up the middle to drive in Henry to give ULM an early 1-0 lead.
Tim Elko opened the Rebels’ second with an inning-opening walk and TJ McCants drew a walk to give Ole Miss two runners aboard with no outs. Another walk, this one to Hayden Leatherwood, loaded the bases for Ben Van Cleve who sent a deep fly to left field to score Elko on the sacrifice fly to tie the score and move McCants to third. Calvin Harris drew the fourth walk of the inning, and again the Rebels had the bases loaded.
Reagan Burford was issued the fifth walk of the inning to allow McCants to score and give Ole Miss a 2-1 lead.
Ole Miss scored the two runs without the benefit of a hit in the inning.
The free-pass trend continued as Gonzalez opened the third with a walk. One out later, Gonzalez stole second and he scored later in the inning when McCants ripped a two-strike pitch into centerfield to put the Rebels ahead 3-1.
Van Cleve opened the fourth with a double into no-man’s land as the ball fell between the ULM shortstop, left fielder, and center fielder. Van Cleve moved to third on a blooper to right field by Harris who advanced to second when the Warhawks overthrew the cutoff man on a throw to home plate.
Burford drove in Van Cleve on a sacrifice fly – his fourth of the year – to give the Rebels a 4-1 lead as Harris moved to third. Harris trotted home on a single by Justin Bench and suddenly Ole Miss was up 5-1.
ULM added a run in the fifth to cut the Rebels’ lead to 5-2.
The Rebels responded in the bottom half of the inning on McCants’ first home run of the season to make the score 6-2. McCants finished the game 3-for-4, driving in three runs, drawing a walk and stealing a base.
McCants helped extend the lead in the seventh with his third hit of the game – this one an infield single – to score Gonzalez to put the lead back up to five, 7-2.
In the eighth, Ole Miss scored twice on bases-loaded walks and added another run to go ahead 10-2.
Jack Dougherty pitched the final three innings, striking out seven.
Next Up:
The teams meet Wednesday to conclude the two-game set at 4 p.m
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
