Ole Miss Baseball Falls in Game One to No. 1 Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – (Release) Ole Miss (18-13, 3-7 SEC) dropped game one of its road series against No. 1 Arkansas (25-3, 9-1 SEC) Thursday night, 5-2.
Luke Hill went 2-for-4 in his first start at second base of the season. Andrew Fischer went 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored and Trenton Lyons got a hit in his first career SEC start.
Riley Maddox drew the Thursday night start on the mound for the Rebels and after giving up a leadoff single to open the game he then retired nine of the next 10 batters he faced. Six of those outs came via groundouts.
After a scoreless first two innings between the two teams, the Rebels played some small ball to take an early lead. With one out in the inning, Hill hit an infield single to third base followed by a Fischer single to right field. Ethan Lege dropped down a bunt on the third base side and reached to load the bases on three straight hits.
Jackson Ross drew a walk to score the first run of the game and Ethan Groff hit a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left center to make it 2-0. Ole Miss’ two runs scored were the first two runs given up by Arkansas starter Hagen Smith this season that did not come via a home run.
The Razorbacks got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, scoring one run on an RBI groundout to make it 2-1.
Maddox continued to deal, retiring five-straight on groundouts, but then ran into trouble in the sixth inning. Arkansas drew back-to-back walks to open the inning before Wehiwa Aloy hit a three-RBI home run to give them the lead.
After a pitching change for the Rebels, Jared Sprague-Lott hit another solo shot off the left field foul pole to make it 5-2 Arkansas by the end of the inning.
Brayden Jones came in and pitched two hitless innings out of the bullpen, keeping the Razorbacks off the board the rest of the way. However, outside of a walk by Fischer in the seventh and an infield single by Hill in the ninth, the Rebel offense was quieted over the next three innings and Arkansas would go on to take game one.
Ole Miss and Arkansas would play game two of the series Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT.
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.
