Hunter Elliott bent but did not break in producing his best outing of Ole Miss' season
OMAHA, Neb. — It is getting very repetitive but also still very true. Hunter Elliott is a big game pitcher for Ole Miss and he went big game hunting on Monday.
In Ole Miss’ biggest game of the season and possibly its program, Elliott provided yet another legacy-building outing against Arkansas.
The last month of the season has seen Elliott and Dylan DeLucia become duo aces. It is not even fair to say one is better than the other. Each has proven their worth and ilk and the sole crux of why Ole Miss is one of the last six teams competing for a national championship in Omaha.
Elliott worked 6.1 innings, giving up three runs the first two innings before shutting down an Arkansas offense that put up 17 runs against Stanford two days prior.
“So they’ve got a true ace and then almost probably another ace,” said Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. “When you look at Elliott, he’s been getting after as well down the stretch.”
Van Horn is the next in a line of coaches that have been tipping their caps to DeLucia and Elliott. On Monday it was the latter’s turn to receive more praise.
Monday nearly did not go well for Elliott after a rocky beginning, before showing he’s a veteran player pitching in a freshman’s body.
Going out with a two-run lead in the first inning, Arkansas tacked on a run after some bad defense by the Rebels. The Razorbacks again scored two runs in the second inning due to more untimely defense by Jacob Gonzalez.
Still, Elliott did not let it rattle him, even though it caused his pitch count to get high early — he finished with 100 pitches on the dot.
Instead, Elliott settled in and grinded out shutdown inning after shutdown inning until the Ole Miss offense broke the game open.
What really turned the tide for Elliott was the pick-off of Cayden Wallace in the third inning after giving up a leadoff walk. It was the third straight inning Arkansas got the leadoff man on base.
“Erasing (Wallace) and technically getting the leadoff out was huge,” Elliott said. “It allowed me to settle in and attack the next guy and start to settle in a little bit and put it on cruise mode.”
Once the cruise control button was punched for Elliott it was smooth sailing. When Ole Miss posted crooked numbers in the fifth and eighth innings there were fewer things stressing the left-hander from Tupelo, Miss.
“Pitching with a lead’s huge and these guys have been able to do that for me lately,” Elliott said. “I think I’ve had a good amount of run support lately. It’s easier to pitch with a lead obviously than being down runs or tied, having to make every single pitch perfect. It allows you to flood the strike zone and let whatever happens happen.”
