March 8, 2013

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OXFORD, Miss. – It was a big night for the Rebel offense early as No. 7 Ole Miss (14-1) jumped on Lipscomb (6-8) with three big scoring innings out of the gates to defeat the Bison 10-1 in the series opener Friday night at Swayze Field.

With the win, Ole Miss head coach tied former Rebel All-America and Major Leaguer Jake Gibbs with 485 wins as Rebel skipper.

Preston Overbey led the way with a career-high four-RBI night as the junior was part of a trio of Rebels with multiple-RBI and multiple-hits in the outing. Overbey was 2-for-4 on the night, while Andrew Mistone went 3-for-3 with three RBI and Stuart Turner went 2-for-2 with two RBI and three runs scored.

Bobby Wahl (4-0) picked up the win for Ole Miss, striking out six and limiting Lipscomb to three this through 6.0 scoreless innings of work. He did not allow a walk in the outing. Left-hander Jeremy Massie picked up his first save of the season, working the final 3.0 innings and allowing one run on seven hits and two strikeouts.

Josh Cotham (1-2) took the loss for Lipscomb as he allowed nine runs on seven hits with four walks and three strikeouts in 3.0 innings of work.

“It was a well played game by us,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “This was by far Bobby (Wahl)’s best outing of the year. He had electric stuff with all three pitches in the strike zone. He commanded the fastball in and out tonight. A couple of innings he struggled to get it into the strike zone. It was so hard and breaking so much. It was a tremendous pitch for him at times tonight. He threw some changeups even with a huge lead to get them off of the fastball a little bit.

“Offensively it was a great night; Preston was big with the base hit with two outs early on. It broke the game open for us. Mistone had a great night. Boz (Bousfield) came back after having some so-so games. We had a terrific night swinging the bat. Turner continues to swing well. It was nice to see some of the young guys get in and play tonight.”

The Rebels got things started in the second inning with a two-RBI single through the left side from Overbey. Turner and Mistone scored on the bases-loaded single to put Ole Miss on top 2-0. Turner walked and Mistone singled before Sikes Orvis walked to load the bases and set up the Overbey hit.

Ole Miss added four more runs in the third inning. The first two came on a single up the middle from Mistone that scored Anderson and Turner who reached on a single and a double. Orvis then drew his second walk of the game before a walk of Will Jamison loaded the bases for the second time on the night. Overbey then came through with his second bases-loaded hit of the night to drive in Turner and Orvis, and give the Rebels the 6-0 lead.

Four more runs came home in the fourth inning on a two-RBI single from Turner, a single from Mistone and a double from Orvis to give Ole Miss a commanding 10-0 lead on the Bison.

The Rebel pitching staff held Lipscomb in stretch until the ninth when the visitors from Nashville put together a two-out rally to scratch out a run and get on the board. The lone run would be all the Bison could manage as Ole Miss picked up the win 10-1.

The two teams will return to action on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Swayze Field.