Memphis Takes Down No. 8 Ole Miss 9-6

Tuesday, February 28

Oxford, Miss

4:00 PM

University of Memphis

5-2

Ole Miss

7-1

Memphis

Ole Miss

Photo by: Michael Gardner

Feb 28, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

Tigers hand highly-ranked Rebels first loss of the season

OXFORD, Miss. – Memphis and Ole Miss went back-and-forth through the early innings before the Tigers took hold of the game and rolled to a 9-6 win over the eighth-ranked Rebels Tuesday night at Swayze Field. The Tigers (5-2) handed the Rebels their first loss of the season.

Five different Tiger pitchers took the mound, but it was sophomore left-hander Hunter Smith who was the star of the night. Smith pitched three hitless innings and retired nine of the 10 batters he faced. He retired the first seven batters he faced.

James Muse started the game and kept the Tigers in it, pitching two innings and allowing three runs on four hits. Left-hander Drew Crosby was the first reliever to enter and he was dominant, pitching two scoreless innings and earning his second win of the season.

Colton Hathcock recorded his third straight save, pitching a perfect bottom of the ninth with two strikeouts. He has lowered his season ERA to 3.68 with three straight scoreless outings.

Freshman shortstop Alec Trela had his first multiple hit game of his career and smashed the first home run of his career to provide some insurance in the top of the ninth. Trela finished 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Designated hitter Andy Bowman also had two hits, a pair of doubles in his first two at-bats. Left fielder Colton Neel was 2-for-5 with two RBI and a solo home run in the third inning.

Ole Miss snagged a 1-0 lead in the first inning but it could have been much worse as the Rebels had runners at second and third with nobody out. The run came home on a sacrifice fly but centerfielder Tyler Webb threw out the trail runner trying to advance to third base.

The Tigers answered quickly, tagging the Rebels for three runs in the top of the second inning. Chris Carrier started the inning by getting hit by a pitch and Trela singled to put two runners on with nobody out.

Bowman drove in the first run of the inning with a double down the right field line. Trent Turner gave Memphis the lead with a sacrifice fly to center field and Kyle O'Keefe made the lead 3-1 with another sacrifice fly.

The Rebels jumped right back in front, matching the Tigers' three-run top of the second inning. A three-run home run by shortstop Grae Kessinger gave Ole Miss the 4-3 lead.

Neel tied the game back up 4-4 with an opposite field solo home run in the top of the third.

Memphis retook the lead again in the fourth inning after Bowman doubled for the second time in the game. Turner reached on an error that put the runners at second and third. Jason Santana drove in Bowman with a sacrifice fly to right field to make the score 5-4.

Memphis tacked on three more runs to extend the lead to 8-4 in the top of the sixth. The Tigers did it without a hit in the inning as they took advantage of two hit batters and three Ole Miss errors. Webb drove in the third run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to right field.

Ole Miss was able to cut into the Tigers lead with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning off of reliever Jonathan Bowlan. Trela's bomb in the ninth helped neutralize one of those runs before Hathcock came in to close it out.

The win is the 34^th top-25 win of Daron Schoenrock's Memphis career.

Memphis will be back at FedExPark this weekend to host Georgia Southern for a three-game weekend series.