OXFORD, Miss. -- The Rebel baseball team picked up its first series sweep of the season on Sunday as No. 14 Ole Miss (7-3) defeated Vermont (0-6) by a score of 3-2 at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.

Phillip Irwin (2-0) picked up the win - his second of the week - as he worked 6.2 innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Scott Bittle picked up his second save of the season as he worked the ninth and struck out the side in order to preserve the Rebel win.

Justin Albert (0-2) suffered the loss for the Catamounts as he worked 6.0 innings and allowed three runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

Jordan Henry came up big for the Rebels at the plate, making the most of his at bats as the junior went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.

“Today was a different ballgame obviously, but one we probably needed,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “It’s hard to blame the offense after they’ve been so great for nine games in a row, but it was tough. You have to give Justin Albert credit for shutting us down. Besides Logan Power and Jordan Henry, the offense was non-existent today. That put a little heat on Phillip Irwin, but he answered. We needed a game like that.”

The Rebels scored in the first when Jordan Henry crossed the plate on sacrifice fly to right field from Matt Smith. Henry drew a walk before stealing second and then stealing third. Ole Miss added a second run in the frame when Tim Ferguson scored from second on a single up the middle from Logan Power to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead.

Vermont answered with a run in the second Jeff Nolet scored from second on throwing error on a grounder to third from Corey Moylan. Nolet singled to open the inning before moving to second on a ground out from James Katsiroubus. He then cut the Rebel lead in half on the Moylan grounder.

Ole Miss scored again in the bottom half of the second when Jeremy Travis scored from second on a single to left from Kevin Mort. Travis walked before advancing to second when Zach Miller was hit by a pitch. After crossing the plate on the Mort single, the Rebels led 3-1.

Vermont scored once more, pushing a single run across in the fifth on an RBI single from Ethan Paquette that scored Brad Currier. Currier doubled to open the inning and moved to third on a Mark Micowski fly out to be in scoring position for the Paquette hit.

Neither team would score again, though, as the pitching battle continued to the end and the Rebels picked up the win.

Ole Miss will return to action on Tuesday when the Rebels host Austin Peay at 6:30 p.m. in the first of a two-game series in the midweek.