No. 15 Baseball Takes Down Florida to Open Series
OXFORD, Miss. – (Release) No. 15 Ole Miss and Florida opened their baseball series in Oxford Thursday night, and it was the Rebels who came out on top 7-5.
Ole Miss is now 20-5 overall and 5-2 in Southeastern Conference games. Florida is 18-10 and 0-7.
The teams will meet twice on Friday beginning at 3 p.m. The move to a doubleheader was necessitated because of predicted inclement weather on Saturday.
On Friday night, the Rebels scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning but left the bases loaded. An Isaac Humphrey single scored Luke Hill who had walked in the leadoff spot. Hayden Federico walked which scored Ryan Moerman after he had reached on a fielder’s choice.
Florida put up a three-spot in the top of the third. A three-run home run by Ashton Wilson gave the Gators the lead at 3-2.
Ole Miss was able to tie it 3-3 in the bottom of the third. Moerman walked, and after Humphrey struck out, Judd Utermark singled to left. A Will Furniss fly out to left scored Moerman and the game was all even through three.
Ole Miss took a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth. After one out, Humphrey and Utermark walked. Both moved up a base on a wild pitch. Furniss doubled down the right field line to score both. After Federico and Fawley walked, Randle flew out to left to score Furniss.
The Rebels made it 7-3 through six innings. A Furniss fly out to right scored Sanford, who had doubled to lead off the inning.
Starter Hunter Elliott gave the Rebels 5.2 innings of solid work, the only scoring for the Gators coming in the three-run Florida third. No walks and three hits with six strikeouts later, and Elliott gave way to reliever Mason Morris.
Morris pitched 2.1 innings, which began by getting the final out of the sixth with a Gator on second base. Florida got two runs in the seventh, but nothing in the eighth.
Brayden Jones came in and pitched an impressive top of the ninth with a fly out and two strikeouts to get his first save of the season. The Rebels had a two-run win to start the weekend.
Elliott is now 5-0 on the season. Luke McNeillie, the second of seven pitchers for the Gators, got the loss and is 2-1.
Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics
-Courtesy of Jeff Roberson, Ole Miss Sports
Adam Brown
Adam Brown joins The Rebel Walk as the Managing Editor after being on the Ole Miss beat as a Sports Editor for over 11 years. He is a lifelong Oxford resident. Brown graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Prior to The Rebel Walk, Brown was the sports editor of HottyToddy.com covering every Ole Miss sport and local high school sports in the community.
