Ole Miss Baseball Season Comes To An End With 11-2 Loss To Top-Ranked Miami

Courtesy: University of Mississippi

Release: 06/01/2008

Box Score

Courtesy: Associated Press

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Rebels fought hard but ran out of gas in the second game of the day as Ole Miss (39-26) fell to No. 1 Miami (50-8) by a score of 11-2 in the Championship game of the NCAA Coral Gables Regional on Sunday.

Juniors Cody Overbeck and Logan Power were named to the All-Tournament Team for the Coral Gables Regional after their performances on the weekend.

Ole Miss fought through a tough elimination game with No. 12 Missouri earlier in the day before taking the field 45 minutes later to face the top-ranked and top-seeded Hurricanes.

Nathan Baker (3-6) suffered the loss for the Rebels as the sophomore allowed six runs on eight hits with a walk and a strikeout in 2.1 innings of work.

Eric Erickson (8-1) picked up the win for the Hurricanes as he worked 7.0 innings and allowed two runs on six hits with a walk and five strikeouts. Both runs allowed came on a two run home run from Cody Overbeck.

“It’s always tough at the end like this,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “We just played a very good Miami team. I’m proud of the way we competed and the way we got to this point. It’s been a crazy year. There were a lot of expectations coming into this season and for whatever reason, we seemed to struggle all year.

“I am so proud of this team because three weeks ago no one thought we would be in a regional championship playing the number one team in the country,” Bianco said. “Eric Erickson was good for them today. I thought we could get to him early, but then he settled in.”

Miami scored early, pushing three runs across to take the quick lead as the Hurricanes used a walk and three hits – including a solo home run from Ryan Jackson – to jump out of the gates.

Cody Overbeck pulled the Rebels within one in the bottom half of the inning as his two-run homer scored Logan Power from first and cut the lead to 3-2. Power singled to left field a batter earlier to get on base.

Miami pushed the lead back to two runs in the second inning when Jemile Weeks singled to left to score Blake Tekotte from third. Tekotte reached on a fielder’s choice before stealing second and moving to third on a throwing error by the Rebels attempting to get Tekotte at second.

The Hurricanes extended the lead to four with a two-run home run from Dennis Raben in the third as Miami pushed ahead 6-2 and the Rebels brought in Justin Cryer from the bullpen. A single and a double to the next two batters pushed another run across as Miami went up 7-2.

Miami went on top 8-2 in the eighth when Tekotte came up with an RBI triple to left field with two outs to score Raben from second.

A throwing error with two outs on a grounder to short allowed a run to score and opened the door again for the Hurricanes as Miami scored on the error and then used a two-RBI double to push the advantage to 11-2.

The margin of victory would hold for the Hurricanes as Miami claimed the Coral Gables Regional and the season ended for the Rebels.

Men's Sports

Women's Sports