No. 9 Vanderbilt Baseball Drops Series Opener Against No. 23 Ole Miss

The No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels baseball team kept its momentum going by notching their third consecutive victory, opening up the series against No. 9 Vanderbilt with an 8-3 win.

Rebels leadoff batter Hayden Federico took the first pitch he saw into left centerfield for a solo home run, giving Ole Miss a 1-0 lead. Vanderbilt starting pitcher JD Thompson then settled in striking out the side, emblematic of the up and down outing that was to come. Thompson ultimately gave the Commodores 4.1 innings of work, striking out seven Rebels and walking just one. He gave up five earned runs on eight hits and gave two free passes by hitting Ole Miss batters.

Vanderbilt's Isaac Humphrey opened the second inning with a triple to set the 'Dores up to tie. Colin Barczi ensured it happened with a sacrifice fly to left field but couldn't add anything more to take the lead.

The Ole Miss offense went quiet for a few innings as Thompson found his groove, but the Rebels got things going in the fifth inning. Third baseman Luke Hill opened the inning with a leadoff home run to take the lead and get to Thompson. Mitchell Sanford hit a hard one at Thompson and got aboard with a single. Ryan Moerman got on base after Thompson plunked him and Will Furniss singled up the middle to score Sanford and move runners to first and third with just one out, ending Thompson's night.

Luke Guth entered for the Commodores to stop the bleeding but the Rebels kept the rally going as a wild pitch scored Moerman and a second wild pitch scored Furniss before Guth could get out of the inning, stopping the run at 5-1.

Vanderbilt finally found some offense in the top of the eighth inning as Rustan Rigdon drew a leadoff walk and Braden Holcomb followed up by smashing a two-run home run to cut the lead to 5-3.

Unfortunately the rally-vibes were short lived for the Commodores as the Rebels answered with three runs of their own. Federico opened the inning with a leadoff single and pinch runner Connor Chisolm worked his way home off wild pitches and throwing errors. Judd Utermark cleaned up the bases with a two-run home run to put the exclamation point on the win.

Vanderbilt only mustered four hits on the evening, had four wild pitches and two errors as it wasn't the Commodores evening. Ole Miss left 10 men on base as the score could've been even greater in the home team's favor.

The Commodores and Rebels continue the series on Saturday at 5 p.m. and it can be seen on SEC Network.