Rebels return to well to stymie Hogs’ rally
NO. 4 OLE MISS 11, NO. 6 ARKANSAS 10
OXFORD, Miss. — Facing at least a five-run hill on two occasions, No. 6 Arkansas never could reach the top.
Parker Caracci gave up a leadoff double in the ninth but then set down the next three Razorbacks to preserve an 11-10 victory for Mississippi before a crowd of 11,146 at Swayze Field on Saturday.
For the second consecutive weekend, Caracci saved two SEC victories for No. 4 Ole Miss (25-4, 6-3 SEC). He allowed one hit in two scoreless innings against the Razorbacks (19-9, 5-4 SEC) on Friday.
Luke Bonfield started the ninth with a double for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, but Caracci got Dominic Fletcher to pop to third base, Jordan McFarland to strike out swinging and Grant Koch to fly out to center for the save.
Arkansas had pulled within 11-10 on a three-run home run by Eric Cole in the eighth. That’s when Caracci entered, getting two quick outs to end the inning.
Arkansas began the day with 25 hits and a .329 team batting average in two games, but Ole Miss right-handed starter James McArthur limited the Hogs to 3 runs on 4 hits in his 6 innings of work.
He was lifted after Fletcher’s first-pitch home run to lead off the seventh made the score 8-3.
“We had to stay focused. We felt like we could put together an inning or two, but when they punched in those four runs in the fifth inning it didn’t look good for us,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “We knew we needed to get McArthur out of the game. We knew that from the beginning of the game.”
With McArthur out, the Hogs would score three runs on five hits against four Ole Miss pitchers to make it 8-6.
Ole Miss pushed the lead back to five with a three-run home run from Tyler Keenan in the seventh. Arkansas responded with four runs in the top of the eighth, but that was it for scoring.
Keeping the ball low in the zone, Arkansas starter Kacey Murphy got on a roll after giving up a one-out hit in the first. He retired the next seven with four strikeouts as the Razorbacks led 1-0 after three innings.
The Rebels tied the game in the fourth with help from second baseman Carson Shaddy, who dropped a popup to allow Grae Kessinger to reach base. Kessinger went to third on Ryan Olenek’s second hit and scored on Nick Fortes’ sacrifice fly.
Murphy ran into trouble in the fifth. Cole Zabowski led off with a home run to give Ole Miss a 2-1 edge. The next two batters also hit safety, but Murphy forced nine-hole hitter Jacob Adams to pop up a bunt. He was then replaced by Jackson Rutledge.
The Hogs had a chance to help Rutledge by turning their eighth double play of the series, but shortstop Jax Biggers couldn’t glove Kessinger’s ground ball and a run scored.
“Biggers tried to make an aggressive play on it. Who knows how that inning would have gone? We almost picked off one of their runners on a pick-off play,” Van Horn said. “There were a lot of little things. We have a good club, but we have to shore some things up.”
The error was the gift that kept giving.
Another run scored on a sacrifice fly by Olenek, and one more on Thomas Dillard’s hit through the right side.
Van Horn pulled Rutledge after he went down two balls to Will Golsan, and Jacob Kostyshock took over. He threw one pitch, and Golsan lined out to Martin at third. Ole Miss left the fifth with a 5-1 lead.
The Hogs got a run back in the sixth, but Ole Miss tacked on three in its half of the frame.
“We couldn’t get them all back at one swing. We needed to get some hits, some singles, take a walk, somebody get hit by a pitch, whatever you could do to get on base, and maybe somebody would pop one … and it started happening,” Van Horn said about fighting back multiple times. “We had our shot, and we didn’t take advantage of it.”