Ole Miss wins SEC Tournament title
Alabama — Ole Miss has an SEC West title. It has almost certainly secured a national seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Now the Rebels can claim an SEC Tournament championship.
Ole Miss, which was three outs away from being eliminated by Georgia on Thursday, won its fourth consecutive game of the week, beating LSU, 9-1, in Sunday’s title game to give the Rebels their first conference tournament championship since 2006.
So what’s next? Ole Miss awaits the NCAA Tournament seeding process.
The Rebels (46-15) built a stellar resume during the regular season and only strengthened their argument for a national seed by winning the SEC Tournament. So there isn’t much doubt about what will happen there.
The Rebels won the tournament title through the strength of their pitching, a theme that continued on Sunday when Houston Roth held the Tigers (37-25) to one run over 41⁄3 innings.
After he allowed two doubles in the first – the second, from Daniel Cabrera put the Tigers ahead 1-0 – Roth settled in and retired nine of the next 10 batters he faced.
During that span, Ole Miss’ offense pounded Tigers starter Caleb Gilbert for nine hits and three runs. Chase Cockrell singled in the Rebels’ first run. Nick Fortes scored their second one on a wild pitch and drove in their third with a sinHOOVER, gle in the fourth.
On Saturday, Mike Bianco said he didn’t know if Ryan Rolison, who started Wednesday against Auburn, would be available to pitch in the title game.
Will Stokes relieved Roth in the fifth and pitched two-thirds of an innings before he allowed a walk to lead off the sixth. Then Bianco made his move.
Ole Miss’ coach went to his ace, Rolison, who faced some adversity early. He inherited a runner on first. An error allowed another batter to reach base and Rolison walked the next batter to load the bases.
Rolison struck out Jake Slaughter to record the second out of the inning and the packed crowd rose to its feet after he got his second strike against Hal Hughes.
Rolison eventually struck out Hughes to end the threat and keep Ole Miss ahead, 3-1, after six.
That seemed to spark the Rebels’ offense, which blew the game open moments later. Fortes, who went 4-for-4, led off the frame with a single and Thomas Dillard walked.
Two batters later both runners scored after Will Golsan, who posted three hits for the second consecutive game, singled to right field off LSU reliever Devin Fontenot.