Ole Miss Baseball Scores 10 Runs On Wright St., Wins Friday

OXFORD, Miss. (Ole Miss Athletics) — Despite cold and rainy conditions, junior left-hander Christian Trent struck out a career-high nine batters and remained perfect for his career, as Ole Miss defeated Wright State 10-3 in the series opener on Fridayafternoon at Swayze Field.

“We challenged the kids before the game,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “This is one of those days where it’s tough to play. It’s tough to pitch. It takes a lot of feel and touch, when it’s raining the whole day and it’s very cold. (Trent) pitched terrific. If you didn’t know the weather, you would be surprised by the way he pitched. He made it look that easy.”

Trent (2-0) earned the win, improving to 11-0 for his career. He allowed one run, scattering five hits, with one walk and a career-high nine strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work. His nine strikeouts were the most by an Ole Miss pitcher since Bobby Wahl struck out nine against Texas A&M on March 22, 2013.

Trent pitched around a single and double in the first, limited the Raiders (3-1) to one run in the third and stranded two more runners in the fourth and another in the fifth.

“You have to stay focused and you can’t let the weather get to your head,” Trent said. “It shouldn’t be a factor, where before the game that’s something you’re worried about. You have to go out there and do what you can.”

Senior first baseman Sikes Orvis, sophomore third baseman Colby Bortles and freshman left fielder Kyle Watson tallied multi-hit and multi-RBI games for the Rebels (3-1), paced by Orvis, who went 2-for-3 with four RBI, including a two-run blast in the seventh. For Watson, it was his second multi-hit and multi-RBI game in as many career starts.

After falling behind 1-0, Ole Miss regained a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning. Ole Miss took advantage of four walks in the frame, scoring the first run on a sac fly by Orvis, followed by an RBI groundout by Bortles.

The Rebels put up a four-spot in the fifth, doing all the damage after the first two batters were retired in the inning. Sophomore shortstop Errol Robinson started things off with a two-out single, and then sophomore designated hitter Henri Lartigue reached base on a throwing error, followed by three straight RBI singles by Orvis, Bortles and Watson.

“We had a couple of really good at-bats,” Bianco said. “We laid off some balls up in the zone, and we were able get some walks. It was a huge at-bat by Sikes with the sac fly. Last week, we weren’t able to get that. On this type of day, you have to get that. We were able to finish off some innings with some base hits. That was nice to see.”

Ole Miss went ahead 8-1 in the seventh with one swing of the bat by Orvis, who homered to right, his first home run of the season and 19th of his career.

“Being a power hitter, the first home run is always the big one, and I finally got that one off my back,” Orvis said.

Wright State got to within 8-3 with two runs in the eighth, and the Rebels answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning by the help of a RBI triple by Lartigue, his first career triple. He later scored on a fielding error for the final run of a 10-3 final.

Ole Miss and Wright State continue their three-game weekend series with game two Saturday at 1:30 p.m., followed by the series finale Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Both games will broadcast live on SEC Network+ and can be heard on the Ole Miss Sports Radio Network.