Ole Miss falls in finale with Alabama, drops series
OXFORD — After falling behind 1-0 early, No. 23 Alabama scored eight-straight runs Saturday afternoon against Ole Miss, winning the series finale 10-3 and taking the three-game series at Swayze Field.
The Crimson Tide (28-16, 9-12) won the opener 12-0, and the Rebels won the second game 9-8. Alabama freshman starting pitcher Zane Adams pitched seven innings and gave up three earned runs with three strikeouts and one walk.
“We’re too much Jekyll and Hyde. We’re too much on the rollercoaster,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “The good news is, we have it in us to play well. We just have to play well more often, and we haven’t done that. Trying’s not good enough. Everybody tries. That’s some façade … I think everybody tries to play, everybody tries to get hits. We need more doers.”
Junior Mason Nichols pitched four innings Saturday, gave up two hits and one earned run. He struck out one batter and walked two.
Ole Miss (23-20, 7-14 SEC) sophomore catcher Eli Berch drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the second. Alabama’s Gage Miller tied the game with a solo home run in the third.
Justin Lebron put the Crimson Tide ahead in the sixth inning with a two-run home run off freshman Wes Mendes, who surrendered four earned runs in 1.1 innings of work. Mac Guscette hit a towering solo home run to lead off the seventh, and the Crimson Tide scored two more runs each in the eighth and ninth.
Ole Miss senior right fielder Jackson Ross hit a two-run home run in the eighth.
“We have to get some better swings off,” Bianco said. “We have to get some better contact, (we) have the wind blowing out 20 miles per hour. We can’t pull the ball in the air the whole day until the eighth inning. So, just a poor day for us in a lot of phases.”
Ole Miss plays Mississippi State for the Governor’s Cup in Pearl Wednesday. First pitch is 6 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
