One of Saunier’s ‘best fastball days’ in a while helped carry Ole Miss to a series win over Iowa

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•03/03/24•

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Ole Miss baseball didn’t let one loss beat the Rebels twice (or, in this case, three times) in one weekend. 

Instead, Ole Miss responded from what long-time head coach Mike Bianco said Sunday was a ‘weird’ series opener all around with back-to-back wins to take its series with Iowa.

The Rebels (8-5) have won six of their last seven games, including an 8-3 win on Sunday, since a four-game winning streak that dated back to the Rebels’ season-opening split at Hawaii.

Second-year right-handed starter Grayson Saunier recovered from a shaky first two innings to pick up his second win of the year. He covered 5.0 innings. 

“Honestly, I was just trying to attack them,” Saunier said afterwards. “First two innings, was kind of more all over the place. Kind of just had to get back in there. I settled down the next three innings. Just attacking and trust my defense behind me. I was really just trying to find my fastball. Really just trying to throw things down the middle and make them hit it.”

Saunier allowed two hits and no runs. He struck out two and walked two.

“Really good,” Bianco said. He’s in his 24th season leading the Rebels. “One of those days where their guy (Cade Obermueller) was really good and mixed it up. You could tell; we had some uncomfortable swings early in the game, so we needed some zeroes. 

“(Saunier) was lights-out today. One of the best fastball days he’s had in quite some time.”

Saunier needed 90 pitches to make his way through the 21 batters he faced. 

He was relieved by Wes Mendes, who went 2.2 innings, though he was tagged for three earned runs on four hits. Mendes struck out six and walked just one. 

Arkansas State transfer Kyler Carmack, a sophomore right-hander, finished off the series finale with 1.1 innings of one-hit, no-run relief. He struck out two of his five batters.

“He hasn’t been out there since Hawaii,” Bianco said of Carmack. “Pitched in a controlled scrimmage on Thursday. Today, I’m not sure he threw a ball. Absolutely attacked the strike zone. 

“That’s what he has to do. When he does that, his stuff’s really, really good. Low-to-mid-90s fastball with a lot of movement. Really good change-up and a slider to boot. Another piece would be nice.”

Ole Miss only had five hits as a team, including three from reserve catcher Eli Berch.

Berch homered, while the Rebels, collectively, walked eight times. They were hit by four pitches. Ole Miss put up a four-run fifth inning to take control, 5-0. Berch was one of seven Rebels to drive in a run. He also scored a pair.

Ole Miss next hosts Memphis at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.

“I thought we pitched it well,” Bianco said, in analyzing the weekend as a whole. “Take out the ninth inning on Friday night, which was just a weird, weird game. Obviously, JT (Quinn, Ole Miss’ starter on Saturday) didn’t have a good outing for him. But I think, collectively, the other whatever amount of innings that is, I thought we pitched it well.

“Thirteen innings in a row we didn’t give up a run the last two days. That’s pretty good.”

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