Ole Miss Baseball Falls to Jacksonville State on the Road
Ethan Groff Picks Up Three Hits, Two Doubles In Loss
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Ole Miss Baseball (14-3) opened their second road trip of the season with a 10-6 loss at Jacksonville State (7-10) Tuesday night. It was their first road loss of the year and just their third loss overall.
Ethan Groff opened the game with a double off the right field fence, but that would be the only hit for the Rebels until the third inning.
Ethan Lege got things started in the third with a single up the middle and Groff brought him home with his second double of the night. Kemp Alderman drove home Groff with a single to center field to make it 2-0 Ole Miss.
The Rebels would add one more run in the inning as Alderman stole second base and then came home on a double down the right field line from Calvin Harris. When it was all said and done, Ole Miss had scored three runs on four hits and led 3-0.
The Gamecocks answered back immediately in the bottom half of the inning, exploding for six runs. They scored four of those runs before the Rebels were able to record an out, spelling Ole Miss starter Jordan Vera after just two-plus innings of work. Brayden Jones would come in from the bullpen with the bases loaded and no outs and record all three outs by the way of the strikeout, but not before the damage was done. Vera would be charged with all six runs in just his second career start.
Jones would end up working 2.1 innings and striking out a career-high four batters while allowing just two hits.
Ole Miss added two more runs in the fifth inning as Groff picked up his third hit of the day and scored on an Alderman RBI groundout. The RBI was Alderman’s 12th over his last four games. The Rebels cut the lead to one on a sacrifice fly from Harris that brought Jacob Gonzalez home from third.
Jacksonville State hit five extra-base hits over the next two innings to extend their lead to 10-5.
The Rebels got one back in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Lege that scored Peyton Chatagnier from third to make it the final score of 10-6.
Mason Morris pitched a scoreless inning of work in the bottom of the eighth.
Groff finished 3-for-5 in the loss while Alderman and Harris each collected two RBI. The Rebels will open SEC play Thursday at No. 6 Vanderbilt on ESPNU.
(Feature image credit: Ole Miss Athletics)
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn's love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
