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Ole Miss

Ole Miss drops Oxford Regional opener to Murray State to put season on the brink

11by: Jake Thompson05/31/25JakeThompsonOn3
NCAA Baseball: NCAA Oxford Regional-Mississippi at Murray State
May 30, 2025; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels catcher Austin Fawley (24) and starting pitcher Riley Maddox (2) talk during the third inning against the Murray State Racers. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Ole Miss had a plan for the Oxford Regional and that plan was nearly all blown out of the water on the first day.

A 9-6 loss to 4 Seed Murray State puts the No. 10 National Seed Rebels into the loser’s bracket and its season on the brink the rest of the weekend. They will play 3 Seed Western Kentucky in the first elimination game of the Regional at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday.

The plan was starting Riley Maddox on Friday instead of ace Hunter Elliott. A plan that has been adopted by many across the country and was the right move by head coach Mike Bianco and pitching coach Joel Mangrum.

But all had to go according to said plan and have no setbacks. Unfortunately for Ole Miss (40-20) everything that could not go wrong did. Maddox lasted only three innings, giving up four runs – all earned – off six hits and walked three to put the Rebels an early 4-0 hole after two innings.

From there Ole Miss turned to top reliever Mason Morris who gave up two runs off four hits but did not issue any walks. Morris and Maddox combined for six strikeouts.

From there Gunnar Dennis and Will McCausland were used with the latter giving up two runs – one earned – and walking three to match Maddox. All the top bullpen arms were used on the the first day of the Oxford Regional in a losing effort when Ole Miss must win its next three games to force a winner-take-all game on Monday or it is season over.

“We went for it, obviously, and shot a lot of bullets at (Murray State) tonight and they had an answer for everybody,” Bianco said. “Once we decided we were going with Riley the decision was we’ll do whatever we need to do to win the game. In this format you got to win the first two to have an advantage. So we went for it tonight and unfortunately we weren’t good enough.”

An Ole Miss offense that was anemic in Hoover but masked by dominant pitching did not have that on Friday.

The Rebels scored 11 runs in four games in the Southeastern Conference Tournament last week. Against the Racers they scored half of that but the pitching did not match last week.

This was a game where the offense was going to have to score close to double digits but there was not an answer for Murray State starter Nic Schutte in the early going. He pitched into the seventh inning and threw 119 pitches. A three-run home run by Judd Utermark in the third inning made it a one-run deficit. Then two runs in the fourth, including a solo home run by Campbell Smithwick, gave them a one-run lead.

Furniss had a RBI single in the seventh to once again tie the game up but then Ole Miss pitching gave up three runs in the final two innings.

“They can really swing it. They throw the ball in the zone,” Utermark said. “We just didn’t capitalize on on the mistakes the pitchers made today. We did not play great defense behind our pitchers and it’s frustrating. But, we know we can bounce back and win tomorrow”

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