Ole Miss Baseball Stumbles In Finale Against Alabama

OXFORD, Miss. (Ole Miss Athletics) – Senior catcher Austin Knight homered for the second straight game and tied a career high for hits, but the Ole Miss baseball team was unable to complete the weekend sweep, falling 13-4 to Alabama in the series finale Sunday.

“We hung in there in the beginning after we were able to get out of the first,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “Wags (Jacob Waguespack) did a good job. Austin Knight’s home run was big to get us close, but we couldn’t put an inning together after we got it to 4-2 there. They kept getting a run here and there and extending the lead, and then they put up a big six-spot in the seventh and put the game away.”

The Rebels (23-22, 10-11 SEC) swept the doubleheader Saturday, but the Crimson Tide (23-20, 8-13 SEC) avoided the weekend sweep behind 17 hits as well as timely hitting with two outs. They were 7-for-15 with seven two-out RBI in the contest.

Freshman right-hander Will Stokes (1-5) suffered the loss, giving up four runs on three hits in 0.2 innings. Junior right-hander Jacob Waguespack and Wyatt Short worked a combined 5.2 innings of relief and limited Alabama to five runs and scattered 10 hits with two walks and five strikeouts.

“Those guys are used to pitching one or two innings, so when you ask Wags and Short to pitch an extended time t’s tough,” Bianco said. “But they both did a good job.”

Austin Knight went 3-for-3 with a home run, a run scored and two RBI, tying his career high for hits. It was his third multi-hit game and second three-hit game this week. The game after hitting his first career home run during his four-year career, Knight hit his second career home run, a two-run shot in the second.

Junior outfielder Connor Cloyd tallied his fifth straight multi-hit game with a 2-for-4 game, and sophomore shortstop Errol Robinson also had a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Sophomore center fielder J.B. Woodman also homered for the Rebels, his sixth of the season.

“It was a really good week for us offensively,” Bianco said. “We’re starting to swing it better throughout the lineup, and certainly Austin Knight is one of those guys doing that. Cloyd continues to swing it well, too.”

Alabama jumped on Ole Miss early with four runs in the first. Each of the three batters reached in the inning, including an RBI double for Mikey White, and then Casey Hughston delivered the big hit with a two-out, two-run home run to push the Crimson Tide lead to 4-0.

The Crimson Tide threatened again in the second, loading the bases with two outs in the inning, before Waguespack got an inning-ending strikeout to get out of the jam. In the bottom of the inning, Knight made it a 4-2 game with his second home run in as many at bats.

Alabama got a run back in the fourth on a sacrifice fly to right. Short came on in relief for Ole Miss and got a groundout to short to get the final out of the inning and strand runners at first and second. The teams continued to trade runs, as Woodman hit a solo home run in the fifth, his sixth home run of the season, and then Alabama answered back with a two-out, RBI single in sixth.

The Rebels mounted a two-out rally in the sixth with a two-out single for Knight, followed by a two-out walk issued to freshman designated hitter Tate Blackman, but they unable to cut into the Crimson Tide lead. Alabama added to its lead with six runs in the seventh, highlighted by four RBI with two outs.

Freshman catcher Nic Perkins recorded his first career RBI with a fielder’s choice groundout in the eighth, and then Alabama catcher Will Haynie closed out the scoring with a solo shot in the ninth.

Ole Miss returns to action Tuesday, traveling to Pearl, Miss., to battle intrastate rival Mississippi State in the annual Governor’s Cup. After the midweek matchup, the Rebels will head to Columbia, Mo., to face the Missouri Tigers in their final SEC road series of the season.