Late Surge From Ole Miss Not Enough as Murray State Wins 12–11 in Oxford Regional Finale

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss’ season came to a sudden end in the Oxford Regional final in front of a packed home crowd, as Murray State held off a late rally to defeat the Rebels 12-11 and advance to the program’s first-ever NCAA Super Regional.

Head coach Mike Bianco opened his press conference with what he told his team after the game.

“I just told the kids outside, you’re not ready for this — You don’t have a speech for this. Like the rest of the 40 in that dugout and probably 12,000 in the stands, we didn’t think we were going to lose, but unfortunately we did — I’m really proud of them, in so many ways. The truth is, there were some older guys that didn’t have to come back. It would have been easy to sign, it would have been easy to move on, and they chose to stay. That’s special.”

~ Bianco in his opening statement

Game Recap

Freshman Walker Hooks got the start for the Rebels in the final after making his first appearance against the Racers in the opening game of the Oxford Regional. The lefty sat Murray State down in order in the top of the first, but gave up five runs and nine hits in 2.1 innings of work that did not go as planned. Hooks was replaced by junior Mason Morris in the top of the third with one out on the board.

Bianco explained the process he and pitching coach Joel Mangrum went through before choosing who to start in the deciding game of the final. Ultimately, Hooks was credited with the loss (1-2).

“He’s been in a lot of big moments this year — one of the things was obviously we wanted to go left-handed and he (Hooks) was the lone left-handed bullet. We contemplated starting Morris and we knew they would be the first two guys out, but how would we use it. If you really want to dissect it, we like both of them. We liked the left-handedness of Hooks, but Morris has more swing and miss, and he’s been in that role all year long. If we got in a jam, he would be better to get us out of the jam. Unfortunately their offense was too good too quickly and we couldn’t get him on the field before five runs were across the board. They scored two in the second, and this is not to take anything away from them, but Hooks pitched well. They had three infield hits there in the second inning that scored a couple of runs.”

~ Bianco on the decision to start Walker Hooks

Isaac Silva started on the bump for the Racers despite throwing 84 pitches in his start two days prior against Georgia Tech. The senior righty returned the favor and retired the first seven Ole Miss batters he faced before giving up a solo blast to Austin Fawley in bottom of the third.

The Racers plated two runs in the top of the second to get the scoring started and take the lead on the Rebels. Three-straight singles given up by Hooks to leadoff the frame led to a RBI groundout off the bat of Dan Tauken; and Conner Cunningham singled down the first base line to make it a 2-0 lead for Murray State.

In the top of the third, Hooks sat Oxford Regional MVP Dustin Mercer down on strikes to leadoff the frame but two doubles and two singles right after gave the Racers a 5-0 lead. Morris took over for Hooks and gave up a single but punched out a pair to end the frame. The 21st homer of the season for Fawley in the bottom half of the inning plated the first run for Ole Miss and was also the first hit of the night for the Rebels.

Morris walked Jonathan Hogart to leadoff the top of the fourth and gave up a two-out single in the inning before finally posting another zero for the Murray State offense. Judd Utermark made things interesting in the bottom half of the fourth with a two-run shot deep into the left field seats to make it a 5-3 game, but the Racers piled more runs on in the following frames.

Back-to-back singles for Murray State to leadoff the top of the fifth followed by an error committed at first base by Will Furniss plated an unearned run on Morris before the righty could record an out. After collecting a pair of strikeouts, Morris gave up a bases clearing single to Hogart that extended the Racers’ lead. Mercer later snuck a triple down the first base line that rolled to the right field wall to plate another run and Murray State led 9-3 after four and a half played.

Despite starting and throwing 119 pitches on Friday night against the Rebels in the opening game of the regional, Nic Schutte replaced Silva on the mound for the Racers in the bottom of the fifth and posted two scoreless frames before the Ole Miss offense could get anything going.

The Racers plated three more runs to extend their lead to 12-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh. One of those runs was scored on Will McCausland in the top of the sixth with Luke Mistone singling up the middle to plate a run. Riley Maddox took over in the inning and got the Rebels out of the frame. However, Maddox gave up a pair of runs in the top of the seventh before being replaced by Mason Nichols with two outs and runners on.

Following the loss, Bianco commented on getting all of the Rebels’ best arms out of the bullpen.

“We emptied the tank. When Joel (Mangrum) and I talked last night — you’re asking these pitchers to do something they have not done all year — kudos to coach Mangrum for being able to prepare them and have them in shape. You can tell when guys are pitching for the second or third time out, it’s just not the same stuff — a really good offense on the other side. Man did they (Murray State) hit, and really all weekend long.”

~ Bianco on emptying the bullpen

The Ole Miss offense began to turn it around in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a five-run frame. The Rebels drew three-straight walks, and two of them came with the bases loaded to make it a 12-5 deficit. Back-to-back RBI singles for Luke Hill and Furniss plated three more runs for the Rebels, cutting their Racers’ lead to four. Murray State turned to two different arms in the inning after Schutte was done; handing the ball to Jacob Hustedde before ultimately giving it to Graham Kelham to finish off the game.

After the game, Hill commented on handling the pressure during the eight-run rally for Ole Miss.

“It’s tough. You’re just kind of riding, trying to stay level-headed throughout the whole game. It’s win-or-go-home, so the pressure was on. You just have to stay level-headed and at the end it’s tough. All those emotions hit you at once. It’s a tough feeling, that’s the only way to describe it.”

~ Hill on rallying back into the game before the loss

Nichols sat the Racers down in order in the top of the eighth and then handed the ball to Hunter Elliott in the top of the ninth as the Ole Miss pitching staff began to empty the tank and throw every bullet at Murray State. In the bottom of the eighth with one out and a pair of runners on base, Brayden Randle launched his first home run of the season to make it a 12-11 game with one inning left to play.

Elliott worked a quick 1-2-3 frame in the top of the ninth to give the Rebels a chance at the plate, but Kelham finished off the job. The junior sat the Rebels down in order, retiring five-straight batters to send the Murray State Racers to the Super Regionals for the first time in program history.

“Murray State was really good this weekend. They were the best team here, they played the best. Unfortunately for us, that happened in our regional. I wish them well. Coach (Dan) Skirka, what a terrific job. To handle it, to handle the pressure, to play us three times in front of 12,ooo fans, for his to kids to play like that and hang in there — kudos to them.”

~ Bianco on Murray State in his opening statement

Ole Miss ended the year 43-21 (16-14 in SEC play), becoming the 13th team in program history to surpass 40 wins in a season.