OMAHA, Neb. — Ole Miss stayed hot and continued its perfect run through the NCAA Tournament on Monday, claiming Arkansas as its latest victim.
A revolving door of pitchers couldn’t slow down the Rebels, who pounded out 13 hits in a 13-5 win over the Razorbacks at Charles Schwab Field.
The onslaught put Ole Miss in the driver’s seat on this half of the College World Series bracket and sent Arkansas to the loser’s bracket.
“They played better than us and we need to move on,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “You can't look at the big picture. You have to figure out how to play well tomorrow. … Got to win tomorrow and have a chance to play the next day.”
Calvin Harris, the Rebels’ 9-hole hitter, delivered the two biggest blows of the night and finished 3 for 4 with four RBIs and three extra-base hits.
It was a one-run game entering the third inning when he came up to bat with a pair of runners on base. Harris drove both of them in with a one-out double into the left field corner.
“We almost crawled back into it after a couple (innings) and then they go out and get a couple more in the third,” Van Horn said. “That was a little disappointing.”
The Razorbacks were still within striking distance even after that hit, trailing just 6-3 through four innings. Following a one-out walk, Harris came up again and this time crushed a 2-0 pitch over the right field wall.
The two-run blast sparked a four-run outburst that gave Ole Miss a 10-3 lead. He added another double in the eighth, setting up a two-run single by Justin Bench. The performance made Harris 10 for 21 (.476) in the NCAA Tournament.
“When we started conference play, he wasn't playing regularly,” Bianco said. “He struggled a little bit on offense, struggled offensively… The last few weeks he's been terrific, and we needed it right at the right time.”
Here are several other key takeaways from the loss…
Morris Struggles in Start
Van Horn told reporters after Sunday’s practice that he was considering two different starters and he ultimately went with left-hander Zack Morris over right-hander Will McEntire.
The move was due to the fact that Ole Miss hits 46 points worse against lefties than righties, but it immediately backfired on the Razorbacks.
“You dig deeper into the stats, most of the damage they do — home runs, big innings, extra base hits — come off right-handed pitchers,” Van Horn said. “That would be the reason.”
Morris left an 0-2 pitch over the middle and Bench hit it into right field for a leadoff single to start the game. He moved up on a pair of groundouts before scoring on Kevin Graham’s first-pitch, two-out RBI single.
Three straight free passes, capped by Hayden Dunhurst’s bases-loaded walk that made it 2-0, marked the end of his day.
Luckily for him, Evan Taylor limited the damage by retiring the first batter he faced to strand the bases loaded. That meant Morris was charged with only two earned runs on two hits and two walks in 2/3 of an inning.
It was a stark contrast to his first career start, when he threw a career-high 3 1/3 scoreless innings in the winner-take-all game against a red-hot Oklahoma State in the Stillwater Regional.
Bullpen Implosion
Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, it wasn’t just Morris who couldn’t keep Ole Miss off the scoreboard.
After getting through the aforementioned bases-loaded situation that he inherited in the first, Taylor was a strike away from putting up a zero in the second inning. Instead, Tim Elko crushed his 2-2 pitch over the left field bullpen for a two-run home run. The 416-foot blast, which was 109 mph off the bat, gave the Rebels a 4-1 lead.
Arkansas turned to Kole Ramage next, but the right-hander gave up the two-run double to Harris and was charged with two earned runs in one inning.
“We had a scouting report,” Bench said. “We thought they were going to staff it, which they did. They threw a pitcher an inning there until it got out of hand, but we knew what we were doing, what our scouting report was — just go up there, have tough at-bats and try and get each pitcher out of the game, which is what we did.”
Right-hander Jaxon Wiggins seemed to settle things down, as he worked around two-out walk in a scoreless fourth inning. He also struck out the first batter he faced in the fifth, at which point he had retired four of five, but then proceeded to allow six straight base runners.
Included in that stretch was Harris’ two-run homer, which traveled 363 feet over the right field wall, as well as RBI singles by Jacob Gonzalez and Graham. The latter of those ended his night after just 1 1/3 innings in which he gave up four earned runs. It was Wiggins’ fourth straight outing he’s recorded four or fewer outs.
Later in the game, lightly used sophomore Gabriel Starks was tagged for three earned runs on two hits and one walk in 2/3 of an inning.
When the dust settled, Arkansas’ pitchers gave up 13 earned runs on 13 hits and 10 walks.
“They were ahead in the count,” Van Horn said. “Pretty simple -- 2-0, 3-1, it's easy to hit.”
The only two guys who had success were senior Elijah Trest and freshman Austin Ledbetter, as they combined for four scoreless innings.
Trest actually retired seven of the first eight batters he faced before running out of gas and issuing a couple of two-out walks in the seventh. His 2 1/3 innings were a season high and the most he’s thrown since last year’s season-opener against Texas Tech, when he went three innings.
Ledbetter threw the last 1 2/3 innings, including a perfect ninth inning for the only 1-2-3 inning of the day by Arkansas pitchers. It was his first appearance in two months, with his last outing coming against Arkansas State on April 20.
Elliott Shines for Ole Miss
Offensively, the Razorbacks couldn’t do much against Ole Miss freshman phenom Hunter Elliott.
They did manage to scratch across three runs in the first two innings, but two of them were unearned and the other came on a two-out RBI double by Michael Turner when Graham lost the ball in left field.
“Not taking anything away from Arkansas, but he shouldn't have given up a run today,” Bianco said. “We mispositioned Gonzalez in the first inning and allowed a routine ground ball to the shortstop become a base hit to start the game, and then with two outs, sun/wind, fly ball to left field. Actually got five outs in the first inning.”
Coupled with an error by Gonzalez in the second inning, which led to the unearned runs, Elliott had to throw quite a few pitches early in the game.
It also helped that Cayden Wallace drew a nine-pitch leadoff walk in the third inning, but he was picked off and Elliott got through his first scoreless inning of the day.
“I think they got the leadoff guy on the first three innings, counting that one, and erasing him and technically getting the leadoff out was huge,” Elliott said. “It allowed me to settle in and attack the next guy and start to settle in a little bit and put it on cruise mode.”
Elliott was sitting at 75 pitches through four innings, but cruised through the fifth and sixth innings on nine and 10 pitches, respectively. That enabled him to work into the seventh on exactly 100 pitches.
He was officially charged with one earned run on six hits and two walks while striking out four in 6 1/3 innings.
“I thought he mixed well and we were very close to getting to him,” Peyton Stovall said. “His pitch count started to get up and get high. We couldn't string a couple of hits together and didn't get that big hit. But overall I thought he mixed well and did a really good job of keeping them in the game and giving them a quality start.”
Other Tidbits
~Arkansas was the designated home team for Monday’s game after winning a coin flip following Saturday’s games.
~The announced attendance for the Arkansas-Ole Miss matchup was 25,246.
~One of Wiggins’ pitches in the fourth inning touched 100 mph, according to Creighton’s TrackMan system. He’s the first player to hit triple digits on the radar gun at this year’s College World Series.
~Arkansas men’s basketball coach Eric Musselman and football coach Sam Pittman were in attendance for Monday’s game.
~Robert Moore and Connor Noland were selected as one of three finalists for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award at their respective position, the ABCA announced Monday. The other finalists at second base are Central Michigan’s Mario Camilletti and Coastal Carolina’s Matt McDermott, while Iowa’s Ben Beutel and Houston’s Jaycob Deese are the other pitchers.
Up Next
With the loss, Arkansas will face Auburn in an elimination game at 6 p.m. CT Tuesday on ESPN. The winner of that game would then have to beat Ole Miss in back-to-back games to reach the College World Series finals.
“Yeah, it's an elimination game, but at the end of the day just relax, have fun and just play loose,” Stovall said. “That's when we're at our best. If we're able to do that, I think we'll have success tomorrow.”
During the regular season, the Razorbacks won two of three in a series at Auburn. Neither team has announced a starting pitcher.
