Making sense of a complicated weekend for Ole Miss baseball at Auburn
For just a few minutes after a ball struck by Andrew Fischer's scorching bat landed in left-center field at Plainsman Park Sunday, Ole Miss baseball emerged from a season full of storms to spot the shore.
Trailing 8-6 in the ninth, Fischer delivered a three-run double to nudge the Rebels in front in the series finale against Auburn. A weekend of winning with no caveats, no missed chances and no bad feelings rested just three tantalizing outs away.
After reliever JT Quinn retired the first two Tigers in the ninth, Ole Miss needed just one out. Then a triple snuck past Will Furniss' glove and down the right-field line. Kaleb Freeman cashed it in with a single to center field, yielding to pinch runner Javon Hernandez. Hernandez advanced to second on a wild pitch and stole third against freshman catcher Campbell Smithwick, who was in the game after delivering a pinch-hit single for starting catcher Eli Berch. He scored on a ball in the dirt that Smithwick couldn't smother, touching home plate as Auburn won 10-9.
"It's a kick in the gut," Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said after the game.
A series that was one out from ending in simple, powder blue joy now looks like a much more complicated result.
The Rebels won the first two games of the set, outslugging the Tigers 11-7 on Friday and relying on a stout bullpen performance in a 5-4 win on Saturday. Auburn (22-24, 4-20 SEC) is in a bad place, but any road series victory qualifies as a good weekend in the SEC. Time will tell whether Ole Miss (25-22, 9-14) needed this to be a great weekend.
The usual minimum for at-large consideration for a regional in the modern SEC is 13 wins, assuming all 30 games are played. Reaching that threshold will require the Rebels to go 4-2 the next two weeks against Texas A&M and LSU.
"We've played a lot of baseball games, and we've been kicked in the gut a lot," Bianco said. "So we need to get over it and move on."
If the Rebels achieve that feat, there's a strong chance Fischer will be the one to pull them over the line. The Duke transfer finished the weekend 6-for-14 and drove in 11 runs. He left the yard in each game, bringing him to 18 home runs this season.
His performance fit the role of a superstar on a team crying out for one, especially given the absence of key outfielder Ethan Lege, who fractured his thumb in midweek action.
LEGE: Ole Miss baseball star Ethan Lege has fractured thumb. What Mike Bianco said of his outlook
"Fish is swinging it really well," Bianco said Saturday. "He's such a gamer."
With its margin for error almost entirely used up, Ole Miss needs gamers. Perhaps a few more are emerging. Jackson Ross posted a 5-for-10 weekend with two home runs and four walks. Luke Hill, who has struggled for most of the season after transferring from Arizona State, notched a pair of hits in each game.
Is it progress? Or is it a symptom of spending three games playing against the SEC's worst team?
The Rebels need it to be the former.
"I have all the confidence in the world in this team," Fischer said Sunday. "I still think there's some stones unturned and that's coming for us."
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss baseball takes series at Auburn but loses shot at key sweep
