Ole Miss baseball tops Little Rock, 10-2, in fall exhibition game
Staff and Wire Reports | Back at Swayze Field for the first of two fall exhibition games, Ole Miss baseball picked up a 10-2 victory over Little Rock Saturday afternoon. Calvin Harris, TJ McCants and Peyton Chatagnier all went deep for the Rebels, while Jack Dougherty, Derek Diamond and John Gaddis mowed down a combined 14 Trojans in the first six innings.
Dougherty got the start on the mound for the Rebels, tossing a pair of shutout innings. After walking the leadoff batter, he settled in with back-to-back strikeouts before a soft lineout ended the top half of the frame. There was nothing doing on offense for Ole Miss in the first inning as they were retired in order. Dougherty came back out in the second for a quick one-two-three inning to end his afternoon. Ole Miss threatened in the second after Van Cleve and McCants singled, but an inning-ending double play for the Trojans kept the Rebels off the board.
Diamond only needed to face the minimum number of batters in the third and fourth inning. He struck out five straight and snagged a comeback line drive to cap off an efficient outing. The Rebels jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the third, taking advantage of a Little Rock error and a passed ball.
Ole Miss’ offense finally broke through in the fifth inning after John Gaddis struck out the side. Harris launched a solo shot into right, and Ian Sapp and Garrett Wood followed with walks, forcing Little Rock to go to the pen. With one out in the inning, Banks Tolley grounded one sharply to short and was able to slide in safe at first after an off-target throw pulled the first baseman off the bag, scoring another run. The Rebels added two more in the inning on an RBI groundout and a wild pitch.
Little Rock finally was able to threaten in the top of the sixth, following a leadoff double and a sacrifice bunt, but Gaddis kept his composure on the mound and struck out the final two batters of the inning. In the bottom half of the inning, McCants extended the Ole Miss lead with a two-run shot over the right field wall.
Heading into the seventh, both teams reset their lineups. Ole Miss sent Drew McDaniel in to pitch and made some defensive substitutions. With two outs in the seventh, Miguel Soto singled down the left field line, but Kevin Graham made a nice sliding stop to cut the ball off and hit Tim Simay, who fired it in time to catch Soto trying to stretch his hit into a double.
After a quick eighth inning, Jack Washburn took the mound for the Rebels. He threw a scoreless ninth before Little Rock finally got on the board using a one-out double that dropped in no-man’s land, an infield single and a wild pitch. They would tack on another while Ole Miss picked a runner off in a pickle. Chatagnier quickly got the two back for Ole Miss, blasting the third home run of the afternoon in the bottom of the tenth. Johnson worked back-to-back one-two-three innings in the 11th and 12th to close out the game, while Ole Miss got to double digits in the final frame after Justin Bench doubled and later scored on a sac fly.
The Rebels are back in action on Monday with another intrasquad game. Their next fall exhibition game will take place on Oct. 30, when they welcome Southeastern Conference foe Alabama to town. Ole Miss closes out its fall season on Nov. 12 with the annual Pizza Bowl. The Omaha Challenge is set for the following week, Nov. 15-19, before the Rebels depart for fall break. Stay tuned to the Ole Miss baseball social media channels for updated dates and times.
