March 10, 2013

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OXFORD, Miss. – Trailing by four runs in the seventh inning, the Rebels put together an impressive rally and plated five runs on seven singles to give No. 7 Ole Miss (16-1) a weekend sweep of Lipscomb (6-10) on Sunday.

Tanner Mathis, Auston Bousfield and Austin Anderson all reached with one out before Stuart Turner broke things open with his bases-loaded single to left, plating two runs. It flipped the momentum to the Rebel dugout as Ole Miss would string together seven singles and send nine men to the plate, grabbing the lead and taking the win.

The Rebels capped the rally when Will Allen delivered an RBI single through the left side, droving in Holt Perdzock and putting Ole Miss on top.

Tanner Bailey (1-0) picked up the victory with 2.2 innings of work, entering the game in the seventh with one man on and one out. The right-hander got the Rebels out of the inning, allowing for the rally in the bottom of the frame, and held Lipscomb in check the rest of the way. He gave up one hit with a walk and three strikeouts in his time on the mound.

Hunter Brothers (2-1) suffered the loss for the Bison after he gave up the go-ahead run in the seventh. Brothers worked the final 1.2 innings of the game, allowing one run on four hits. He entered the game with the Rebels trailing by one run and two men on base. He surrendered the tying run – which was credited to Tyler Burstrom – before giving up the go-ahead run on the Allen single.

“I’m proud of the way we hung in there today,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “Lipscomb just played so well, especially early. It was very difficult to get them out. It seemed like every time we missed a pitch that they were right on it. They had some great swings. They swung it well all weekend. Obviously today they had a lot of success.

“I’m proud of the way Sam (Smith) hung in there,” Bianco said. “He hung in there and gave us a chance. (Matt) Denny was terrific, and of course (Tanner) Bailey at the end. The offense really hung in there. They kept answering back. A lot of times you run out of fire power, but our offense played for nine innings. You need these kinds of victories.”

Lipscomb jumped out to the early lead with a four-run first inning as the Bison capitalized on a Rebel miscue to keep the inning alive with two outs. The visitors from Nashville then used a sac fly from Zach Lowery, a two-RBI single up the middle from Noah Chandler and a single up the middle from Austin Sistrunk to get the four-run lead.

The Rebels answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single from Anderson and a sac fly from Turner to cut the lead in half.

Lipscomb pushed the lead back to four runs in the top of the second, moving in front 6-2 with solo home runs from Chad Shannon and Taylor Stewart.

Ole Miss continued to chip away at the Lipscomb lead with an RBI single from Mistone in the third inning and a solo home run from Preston Overbey in the third. The Bison answered each Rebel rally, however, responding with solo shots in the fifth and sixth inning from Lowery and Shannon to take the lead back out to four-runs at 8-4.

The Rebels then held Lipscomb off the board in the seventh before mounting the final rally of the game with the five-run inning.

Ole Miss will return to action on Tuesday, kicking off a five-game road trip at Louisiana-Monroe. The Rebels will play the Warhawks at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday night before traveling on to Arkansas to open Southeastern Conference play next weekend.