The Recap: No. 13 Ole Miss Baseball Takes Down No. 3 Arkansas 10-6 in SEC Opener

The No.13 Ole Miss Rebels came away with their first conference win of the year after taking down the No. 3 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks 10-6 at Swayze Field on Friday afternoon.

The SEC opening victory marked the Rebels' first win against a Top-5 foe since last season when the program took down the No. 2 ranked Texas A&M Aggies.

The Rebels came out hot in the opening frame holding Arkansas scoreless along with freshman standout Hayden Federico starting off the game with a bang after sending a high fly ball to left field for a first pitch home run.

The Rebels kept pushing from there. A few batters later it was Judd Uttermark who found the outfield grass just out of reach of diving center fielder Justin Thomas Jr.'s reach, scoring Mitchell Sanford.

Arkansas bounced back in the top of the second after once again pushing starter Hunter Elliot's pitch count to 43 in just two innings and scraping across a run via a Ryder Helfrick base hit; cutting the deficit to 2-1.

Ole Miss' grittiness once again gave them a pair of runs in the second as they converted a lead off double from Luke Cheng into an interesting deflection play to give Luke Hill an RBI; scoring Cheng.

The Rebels luck continued as Sanford took an easy pop up to shallow left field, but with Hill on the move, Razorbacks shortstop Wehiwa Aloy was out of position. From there the ball dropped in front of a diving Nolan Souza, which scored Hill all the way from first.

Moving through the third inning, both teams once again recorded a run, however Ole Miss had a shot to blow it open. Following a bases loaded RBI single from Cheng, Rebels third base coach Mike Clement got aggressive, but Austin Fawley was gunned out on his way home from second.

Game 1 to the Rebs! pic.twitter.com/rKVmGwW3DO
— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) March 14, 2025

The Rebels then went down in order stranding runners on first and second.

Ole Miss remained hot through the fourth and fifth innings with a mix of small ball, timely hitting and a Sanford bomb that extended the lead to 9-2.

However, Arkansas entered the sixth still fighting after scraping across two runs against Ole Miss' first reliever of the game in Mason Morris.

Ole Miss hitting did not stop there as they continued an interesting streak of not only getting the lead off batter on in each inning, but scoring the leadoff batters. This ultimately gave Ole Miss a 10-4 lead through the first two thirds of the game.

The Razorbacks once again found a way to score a run as Logan Maxwell took advantage of the wind stream out to left field cutting the deficit to five.

The Razorbacks continued to fight all the way through the ninth as Charles Davalan hit Arkansas' second solo shot of the game, which cut the lead to just four and finally knocking out Morris.

Ole Miss' offense was clearly the focal point of the game after riding performances from Sanford and Isaac Humphreys. Their three-hit days combined for five of the Rebels' 10 runs brought in.

The Rebels also utilized the efforts of Hunter Elliott on the mound after starting the game going five innings, striking out 8 hitters, including pitching out of a few major jams only allowing 2 runs.

The first member of relief, Morris, carried through the following 3.1 innings after racking up six strikeouts. The Rebels then turned to Connor Spencer to close out Game 1.

The Rebels' victory extended their season record to 15-2 while ending Arkansas 12-game winning streak.

The Rebels and Razorbacks are currently scheduled to play again tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. CT, however that could be changed due to incoming weather.

Follow Billy Kuhl on X for the latest news and updates on Ole Miss Rebels Baseball with SEC play set to begin on Friday night.

More Ole Miss News:

Ole Miss Quarterback Confident He's "The Best" QB in the 2025 NFL Draft

Top-10 Quarterback in America Locks in Ole Miss Visit

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss Rebels Confirm Spring Game Plans in April

Join the Community:

Follow Zack Nagy on Twitter: @znagy20 and Ole Miss Rebels On SI: @OleMissOnSI for all coverage surrounding the Ole Miss program.