Ole Miss Baseball Smokes Iowa to Secure Series Win
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss Rebels baseball team capped off a hard-fought weekend with a 8-3 series-clinching victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday afternoon at Swayze Field.
Similarly to last week, the Rebels lost the Friday night series opener in less than desirable fashion, but made a strong comeback on Saturday to even the series thanks to big games from freshman LHP Austin Simmons and third baseman Andrew Fischer. Just like the weekend prior, Ole Miss' bats got hot on Sunday afternoon, and helped the Rebels cruise to their second series win of the young season.
Sophomore Grayson Saunier had himself a productive Sunday afternoon, as the southpaw put together 5.0 clean innings of work allowing just two hits and zero runs. Freshman Wes Mendes followed up Saunier, and allowed four hits, three runs, and one walk while striking out six batters in 2.2 innings. Sophomore RHP Kyle Carmack closed the game for the Rebels, throwing one hit and two Ks in 1.1 innings.
It took a few innings for the bats to wake up, but Ole Miss eventually drew first blood in the fourth inning after Bo Gatlin hit a fly out to right field, subsequently scoring sophomore Judd Utermark. It was death by papercuts in the fifth inning, as the Rebels managed to score four more runs via walks, fly outs, and Iowa fielding errors.
Three more insurance runs were scored the rest of the game, including the first home run of Eli Berch's Ole Miss career. Berch finished his afternoon with a .308 batting average, three hits, one RBI, and one homer in three at-bats.
Iowa scored three runs in the top of the eighth inning to try and manufacture a comeback, but it was too little too late for the Hawkeyes.
The Rebels improve to 8-5 following the win over Iowa, and will look to keep their momentum rolling on Tuesday when Ole Miss hosts the Memphis Tigers at Swayze Field for some midweek action. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT, and the starting pitcher has not been revealed yet by Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco.