Alabama's Late-Inning Hit Parade Dooms Ole Miss Rebels in Deciding Game 3

The Ole Miss Rebels dropped the rubber match to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday afternoon.

Ole Miss' Jackson Ross at the plate against Alabama on Saturday / Ole Miss Athletics

After the Ole Miss Rebels pulled out a close one-run win in Friday night's ballgame, the decider on Saturday looked to be the one of the more important games of the season.

Mason Nichols gave the Rebels a quality start on the hill, but the Rebels could only muster one run through the first seven innings as they eventually fell 10-3 to the visiting Alabama Crimson Tide.

An Eli Berch single gave Ole Miss an early lead in the second, and the Rebels looked primed to score some runs on Alabama's freshman left-hander Zane Adams. Adams, however, had other plans, pitching seven strong innings, forcing weak contact and controlling his pitch count throughout his stellar outing. An eighth-inning two-run bomb chased Adams from the game, but it seemed to be too-little too-late for the Rebs.

The Ole Miss bullpen struggled on Saturday, giving up nine runs on eleven hits. A Justin Lebron home run off of Wes Mendes broke the game open in the sixth and truly opened the floodgates for the Tide.

When it was all said and done, the Rebels found themselves still searching for another SEC series win, but time is running out for Ole Miss to try and solidify its tournament resume.

A road trip against the struggling Auburn Tigers is next for the Rebels, and while the Tigers are down this year, going on the road in the SEC is never easy. The next home series will be against the red-hot and top-ranked Texas A&M Aggies. To finish the year, the Rebs head to Baton Rouge in what could be a postseason-decider.

Ole Miss sits at 7-14 at this point in SEC play, which was the same record as the 2022 team who went on to win the National Championship. Does this team have that kind of turn around in them?