Ole Miss baseball wins series over Auburn but loses game-three heartbreaker, 10-9
AUBURN — Ole Miss baseball won the series over Auburn, and that’s the good news. But after taking a 9-8 lead into the bottom of the ninth, disaster struck and the Rebels lost game three, 10-9, in heartbreaking fashion Sunday.
Ole Miss moves to 25-22 overall, 9-15 SEC, while the Tigers earned just their fourth league win this season.
“Obviously when you score (nine runs) you think you’re going to win,” head coach Mike Bianco said postgame. “But we didn’t keep enough pressure on them…You look up at the scoreboard and we only scored in maybe two other innings, while they scored in all but two of the innings. That was really the difference,” he added.
What makes the loss even tougher is the Rebels began the game with the bats on fire, taking a 5-0 lead over Auburn after a two-run homer from Andrew Fischer and a three-run homer from Treyson Hughes.
But the Tigers kept fighting, whittling away at the visitors’ lead. The game was tied 5-5 as Auburn entered the bottom of the seventh, and they took their first lead off an RBI double from Cade Belyeu.
But Ole Miss kept pounding away as Jackson Ross hit a solo home run to right center to tie it back up at 6-6.
Auburn again fought back, however, recording two home runs in the eighth inning to go up 8-6 over the Rebels.
The Rebels weren’t done yet, though, as Fischer again proved clutch when his team needed him, serving up a bases-clearing double that scored three and gave Ole Miss a 9-8 lead to end the top half of the ninth.
And then disaster struck.
The Tigers had two outs when they hit a triple, followed by a game-tying RBI single from Javon Hernandez that knotted things up at 9-9.
Ole Miss closer Connor Spencer then entered the game in relief of JT Quinn. While the Tigers didn’t record another hit, they unfortunately didn’t need to.
The 5-foot-7 Hernandez, a transfer to Auburn from Jacksonville State this season, advanced to second on what the official scorebook says was a wild pitch for Spencer. Hernandez then stole third and soon won the game for his team when he crossed home plate on what was scored as another wild pitch.
Mason Nichols (2.1 IP), Mason Morris (2.1 IP), Brayden Jones (1.1 IP), Gunnar Dennis (0.0 IP, 11 TP), JT Quinn (2.0 IP) and Connor Spencer (0.0 IP) all pitched for the Rebels in the loss, which was officially assigned to Quinn.
“It’s always tough when you have a lead in the ninth and you try to close it out — and you’re that close — it’s a kick in the gut. I think when we look back at this game and reflect, it seems like it’s one of those where it may have gotten away from us in the ninth, but it’s hard to say we deserved to win this. We pitched it pretty good all weekend until today. It was a tough start for Mason obviously, but even the bullpen throughout all the guys, except for maybe (Brayden) Jones.”
Coach Mike Bianco
Ole Miss scored 9 runs on 11 hits and recorded 1 error, leaving six on base. Auburn, meanwhile, scored 10 runs on 15 hits with no errors. The Tigers stranded eight.
“I thought we struggled,” Coach Bianco said of his team’s hitting.
“You got to credit them (Auburn). A team that’s had a really tough year and be there with nobody on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth to pull it away. Just not a good enough day for us.”
Coach Bianco
Coach Bianco knows the bounce-back will be challenging for the Rebels with series remaining against A&M at home and LSU in Baton Rouge.
“They’ve got final exams (this coming week), Bianco explained.
“We’ve played a lot of baseball games and we’ve been kicked in the gut a lot, so we need to get over it and move on.”
Coach Bianco on moving forward after the loss
Next Up
Ole Miss will host Murray State (30-18) this Wednesday. First pitch at Swayze Field is set for 5 p.m. CT. Then, current-No. 1 A&M, who dropped two to LSU this weekend, comes to Oxford for a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series.
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.
