Baseball: #2 Ole Miss vs. Arkansas State

[Cianne]

The Rebels are now 9-0 and continue to swing the bats pretty well and throw some good innings. There have been a few problems in the middle infield with the glove, but I'm going to chalk that up to the weather as I wouldn't want to catch a ball when it's 25 degrees either. The Rebels are looking to get a good win on Wednesday over the Indians before heading to TCU for the weekend.

Little known fact for the Rebel pitching staff. They have struck out more opposing batters than they have allowed on base. 102 Ks vs. 62 hits and 27 walks through eight games. This does leave out the Southern Miss game.

Pitching Matchup

UM: Philip Irwin RHP, 5.40, 1-0
ASU: TBA

[Cianne]

Horrible game for the Rebels all around for the most part. Lots of errors, Phillip Irwin might have started his last game, and general blah. Jake Morgan came in and pitched lights out and Logan Power hit a grand slam for some of the few bright spots.

http://www.olemisssports.com/pdf3/114930.pdf?ATCLID=1405957&SPID=748&DB_OEM_ID=2600&SPSID=13045



OXFORD, Miss. – Logan Power produced the second grand slam of the season for the Rebels on Wednesday, but it wasn’t enough as No. 2 Ole Miss (9-1) suffered its first loss of the season 7-5 to Arkansas State (5-4) at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.
Power paced a Rebel offense that was unable to get on track as he went 1-for-3 at the plate with a run scored and four RBI. The grand slam was the first of the season for Power and his fourth home run of the season.

Phillip Irwin (1-1) suffered the loss for the Rebels as he allowed six runs, four earned, on eight hits with no walks and two strikeouts.

Jordan Kimballl (1-0) picked up the win for the Indians as he worked 3.0 innings and allowed four runs on three hits as he gave up the grand slam to Power. Kimball left the game with his team holding to a 6-4 lead. He allowed four walks and struck out four on the night.

“I thought Phillip looked like he had good stuff out there tonight, but Arkansas State was just locked in at the plate,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “We weren’t able to put hits together tonight and you have to credit Arkansas State.”

Arkansas State jumped out to the early lead, using five hits in the top of the first to put three runs on the board. A double sandwiched between a pair of singles opened the inning for the Indians before two more hits in the inning would push the lead out to 3-0 in favor of Arkansas State.

The Indians added to the lead in the second inning with a two-out rally that pushed the lead to 5-0. With two outs, Todd Baumgartner reached on a throwing error off a grounder to third and moved to second on the play. He then scored on a single through the left side from Ryan Hudgins that saw Hudgins move to second on the throw to the plate. Hudgins then scored on a single up the middle from Brandon Eller before Irwin struck out Drew Benes to end the inning.

Arkansas State opened the third with a double before the Rebels went to the bullpen for Jake Morgan. Morgan got the first batter he faced to ground out to second, but Guy Brown advanced to third on the play before scoring a batter later on a sac fly to left field from Murray Watts.

One swing of the bat brought the Rebels back into the game as Logan Power hit a grand slam in the third to cut the lead to 6-4 in favor of the Indians. Back-to-back walks of Henry and Michael Hubbard, followed by an infield single from Cody Overbeck loaded the bases before Power hit his two-out grand slam.

Arkansas State pushed another run across in the fourth as Derrick Coleman reached on a throwing error on a grounder to first and then advanced to second on a throwing error on the pick off attempt. He advanced to third on a sac bunt before scoring on a single through the left side from Ryan Hudgins.

The Rebels cut back into the lead in the seventh when Matt Smith came up with a two-out RBI double to score Cody Overbeck from first. Overbeck reached on a fielder’s choice a batter earlier as Hubbard was thrown out at second.

The Rebels couldn’t muster another rally, however, as Arkansas State kept Ole Miss off the board in the final two frames to claim the win.

Ole Miss will return to action this weekend with a three-game set at Texas Christian University. The Rebels and Horned Frogs will start the first game on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

[woo_pig_sooie]

You're going to have games like this. I'm one who thinks sometimes it's better to lose one or two games that maybe you should win, at least in a sport like baseball or basketball where there are more games. Sometimes it makes everyone focus a little bit more and allows the coach to get pissed off and let it rub off on the players.

Of course, don't let it happen too much.

[olemsdave76]

You're going to have games like this. I'm one who thinks sometimes it's better to lose one or two games that maybe you should win, at least in a sport like baseball or basketball where there are more games. Sometimes it makes everyone focus a little bit more and allows the coach to get pissed off and let it rub off on the players.

Of course, don't let it happen too much.

Thanks for the support. Yeah, these games happen. Everyone who KNOWS baseball realizes that. Bad defense and poor at-bats will get you beat no matter the opponent. Shake it off and take care of business next time out. Go Rebs!