No. 17 Ole Miss Baseball Drops Rubber Game to No. 5 Georgia
OXFORD, Miss. — The No. 17 Ole Miss Rebels fell 5-1 against the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs in Sunday afternoon’s rubber game, dropping their first series since March when they were swept by Mississippi State.
The teams traded wins in Saturday’s doubleheader, with Ole Miss rallying for a 10-8 victory in Game 1 after scoring 10 straight runs, before the Bulldogs edged the Rebels 9-7 in a 14-inning marathon in the nightcap.
Ole Miss was kept in game three largely behind starter Taylor Rabe, who turned in a quality start, pitching 6.0+ innings, tallying 6 strikeouts, allowing 9 hits, and allowing for 3 earned runs.
“If there’s a silver lining, it was great to have him back. Hard to navigate through that lineup. They stay on an array of pitches and spray it everywhere. They are tough to strikeout. They steal. They do a little of everything, so his performance was great to get into the seventh inning.“
Mike Bianco on Taylor Rabe
Georgia starter Caden Aoki turned in an even more impressive outing with 6.0 innings, picking up 7 strikeouts, and allowing just 4 hits and one run.
The Rebels got on the board in the first when Judd Utermark rolled a ball to the shortstop, who made a nice diving stop that ended in a double play; however, Dom Decker on third came across the plate, opening the scoring and giving Ole Miss a 1-0 lead after the first.
The Bulldogs responded in the following half inning when Ryan Wynn smacked an RBI single into right field, evening the score at one apiece. Then in the third, Georgia took the lead with a solo blast from Daniel Jackson, his 21st of the season, giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.
Following Jackson’s home run, both offenses were stagnant, as the pitching controlled the game. Rabe went into the seventh before being pulled for Walker Hooks, who then allowed a run, credited to Rabe. Hooks escaped what could have been a dangerous inning with multiple runners in scoring position, finishing the frame only down 3-1 to the Bulldogs.
Ole Miss put themselves in position to strike in the bottom of the eighth, with the bases loaded and the go-ahead run at first with two outs. However, after a handful of pitching changes from Georgia, Justyn Bird got the strikeout to hold Ole Miss and end the inning.
Georgia tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the ninth, when Jackson drove in his second RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly, and Michael O’Shaughnessy found a gap for an RBI single, giving the Bulldogs a 5-1 advantage with three outs to go.
Ole Miss went down 1-2-3 in the ninth, losing their first series in nearly a month.
A Look Ahead
Ole Miss has a tough week ahead, first traveling to Pearl, Mississippi, to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Governor’s Cup and then staying on the road north to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks for a three-game set.
Billy Kuhl
Billy Kuhl joins The Rebel Walk as a sophomore at Ole Miss majoring in Journalism with a Sports Media concentration. He is from Jefferson Township, New Jersey and graduated from Jefferson Township High School where he played varsity baseball, and soccer, and swam competitively in his summers. You can contact him at wpkuhl88@gmail.com or DM him on X @Billykuhll or instagram @Billykuhll_
