No. 5 Ole Miss baseball completes sweep over Charleston Southern

OXFORD, Miss. (Ole Miss Athletics) – Ole Miss (3-0) and Charleston Southern (0-3) were locked in a tight battle Sunday afternoon until an eight-run fifth inning put the Rebels in command, finishing off the opening weekend sweep with an 12-2 victory in eight innings at Swayze Field.

Drew McDaniel started on the bump for the Rebels, earning the win after allowing one run on two hits in 3.2 innings of work with four strikeouts. Three Rebels made their 2022 debuts in relief of McDaniel out of the bullpen in Hunter Elliott, Dylan DeLucia and Jack Dougherty. Dougherty was electric in his two frames, striking out five.

For the first time all weekend, Ole Miss fell behind in the first on Connor Carter’s solo homer to right. The deficit didn’t last long as Kevin Graham took Evan Truitt well over the right field fence, handing the Rebels a 2-1 lead after the first.

Ben Van Cleve added a run of insurance in the fourth with an RBI groundout to score Justin Bench before the Rebel bats exploded in the fifth.

Graham got the scoring started with a single spanked up the middle, plating a pair to give him four runs driven in for the day. Bench followed with a fielder’s choice to score another before McCants belted a double to the gap to wheel Bench all the way around from third.

Following a Calvin Harris RBI single to left field, Alderman put the final stamp on the frame with authority, crushing a three-run bomb off the batter’s eye in center, putting the home team ahead 11-1.

The Buccaneers scratched a run across in the sixth but Ole Miss ended things in the eighth, bringing home Alderman on Knox Loposer’s single to left-center to make the lead 10 and bring the run-rule into effect.

With three wins in tow, the Rebels turn their attention to the first midweek matchup of the season, welcoming Arkansas State to Oxford for a 4 p.m. CT ball game. The game will be streamed on SEC Network +.