Ole Miss drops regular-season finale, series with Texas A&M
May 21—OXFORD — A bad couple of days isn't going to have Ole Miss feeling down in the dumps. Because, at the end of the day, they've put themselves back in position for a postseason berth.
A big Texas A&M fourth inning doomed the Rebels on Saturday afternoon at Swayze Field — trailing 5-2, the No. 6 Aggies scored seven runs on five hits in the inning, including a grand slam to cap off the scoring — and the Rebels were unable to chip away at the deficit, falling 12-5 in the rubber match of the series and regular-season finale for both teams.
Despite sophomore shortstop Jacob Gonzalez hitting his second home run in as many days, Ole Miss was unable to scratch across any runs after scoring four in the fourth to take the lead.
Ole Miss is locked into the No. 9 seed at next week's SEC Tournament, where the Rebels will face No. 8 seeded Vanderbilt Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
The Rebels were essentially left for dead three series ago with a 7-14 conference record. Since then, Ole Miss has won eight of 10 overall and has an RPI of 38. They aren't looking at all the possible scenarios for earning a berth in a regional right now, however. Instead, they're focused on the only game definitively penciled into their schedule.
"If you lose on Tuesday, you don't play anymore. It's not rocket science," head coach Mike Bianco said. "So, you better focus on whoever you're playing on Tuesday and for those three or four hours. ... I don't really think we can look too far ahead after that."
Saturday at Swayze Field was also Senior Day, where five players were honored after exhausting their eligibility — first baseman Tim Elko, infielder Ben Van Cleve, pitcher John Gaddis, Max Cioffi and outfielder Hayden Leatherwood.
"I was trying to hold back the tears a little bit. This place has been so special to me for five years, and just all the people that have touched my life since I've been here," Elko said. "All of those emotions ran into that one moment."
Junior Derek Diamond didn't have the best of starts to his game Saturday, with leadoff hitter Trevor Werner hitting a triple and No. 2 hitter Jack Moss driving him in with a single. He finished the frame strong, striking out two and limiting the damage to a lone run.
Junior catcher Hayden Dunhurst tied the game in the bottom of the second with a 405-foot solo home run, his sixth hit of the weekend. After briefly relinquishing the lead, the Rebels again tied the game again in the third with Gonzalez's home run. Junior second baseman Peyton Chatagnier put Ole Miss ahead later in the inning with a three-run home run to left field.
Texas A&M's (35-17, 19-11) Dylan Rock tied the game again in the fourth with a two-out, two-strike, three-run home run off junior Drew McDaniel. Brett Minnich then hit a grand slam off McDaniel to put the Aggies ahead for good. McDaniel surrendered five runs in 1-3 of an inning.
Texas A&M's Ryan Targac and Jordan Thompson hit dagger home runs in the ninth off of senior Brandon Johnson to cap off the Aggies' 10 unanswered runs.
"We just didn't pitch it well enough," Bianco said. "But one of the reasons that we've put ourselves in this position is, the last three weeks we've pitched, maybe the last four or five weeks, we pitched it really, really well. But we didn't pitch it well enough today."
Despite the series loss, Chatagnier said the Rebels are feeling good headed to the SEC Tournament, though he admits there is still room for improvement.
"The past couple weeks, I've been really proud of this team. We kept fighting, we kept believing and giving ourselves a chance to be in the talk. I don't know if it comes down to the game on Tuesday or whatever, I don't know how it all works. But we're ready to play, and we believe in ourselves."
MICHAEL KATZ is the Ole Miss athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at michael.katz@djournal.com.
