Long balls lift Arizona past Ole Miss in Game 1
Jun. 12—TUCSON, Ariz. — Ole Miss fans wondering how the ball carried at Hi Corbett Field had their answer by the fifth inning of Game 1 of the Tucson Super Regional.
It carried quite well for the home team.
No. 5 seed Arizona, fifth in the nation with 128 doubles, rallied from a quick 3-0 deficit with four home runs, three off Ole Miss starter Derek Diamond, and took a 1-0 series lead with a 9-3 win before 5,839 fans Friday night.
Ole Miss (44-21) faces elimination with All-SEC left-hander Doug Nikhazy on the mound in a 9 p.m. start on Saturday.
The Wildcats (44-15) breezed through their home regional in three games and carried a reputation of doubles in the gap in a spacious home field where the left field foul pole is 366 feet away, the right field one 349. They had 13 hits against Ole Miss.
Ole Miss had five home runs four days ago at breezy Swayze Field in a 12-9 regional-clinching win over Southern Miss.
As home runs go there were none for Tim Elko, the Oxford Regional MVP playing on a bad ACL, who was 0 for 3 with three strikeouts.
"Elko's on fire right now. He's almost Babe Ruth-like in terms of his impact on games," Arizona coach Jay Johnson said.
Bianco said Elko's night had nothing to do with a bad ACL.
"He's been terrific, but you can't assume he's going to go 3 for 4 with a grand slam no matter how many ACLs you have," Bianco said. "It wasn't anything physical."
Elko, Kevin Graham and Hayden Dunhurst, bats the Rebels need, were a combined 0 for 9.
Arizona sophomore third baseman Tony Bullard already had two home runs in pocket when he tripled to lead off the home half of the sixth. He would scored to make it 6-3.
The Rebels, who began the day as the SEC's No. 2 hitting team at .289, were unable to keep pace in spite of a fast start with three two-out runs in the first. Ole Miss had three hits in the first but only three more in the final eight innings.
Arizona right-hander Chase Silseth lasted only 4 2/3 innings, but he and his bullpen controlled the game after the first.
"If we go back and look at the tape I think we'll see that we took a few fastballs early in counts and put ourselves in bad counts," Bianco said. "We were able to put some at-bats together in the first, but after that their starter settled in. Credit their pitchers."
Rebels shortstop Jacob Gonzalez led off with a double on the game's first pitch, and Arizona coach Jay Johnson chose to walk Elko after the second out.
Then came back-to-back hits from Justin Bench and TJ McCants to put three runs on the board.
The Wildcats clawed back with solo home runs against Diamond in the first, second and fourth.
Tyler Myers gave up the lead on a two-run shot by Jacob Berry in the fifth.
Arizona scored in six of its eight at-bats.
"We need to be better," Gonzalez said. "Playing in an elimination game kind of helps us. We're really good with our backs to the wall."
