Ole Miss eliminates Arkansas 5-2 at SEC Tournament

Ole Miss, the seventh seed, struck early and then held on to defeat second-seeded Arkansas 5-2 on Friday in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.

Ole Miss scored all its runs in the top of the first against starter Zach Root. A rare error by shortstop Wehiwa Aloy opened the door for the Rebels. Root walked Mitchell Sanford to start the game. Luke Hill then hit what appeared to be a double play grounder to Wehiwa Aloy who booted the ball, then rushed the throw allowing both runners safe and on second and third.

Judd Utermark then singled plating Sanford. Root then fanned Will Furnuss before Ryan Moerman singled to knock in a run. Collin Reuter then reached on a fielder’s choice. With two outs and his team leading 2-0, catcher Austin Fawley blasted a three-run home run for a 5-0 lead. Dave Van Horn talked about the loss.

“You’re just looking at the box score and pretty much knew,” Van Horn said. “I knew the exact total. Both pitching staffs really did a nice job. I think both teams had double digit strikeouts and both bullpens did a tremendous job.

“You’re coming in and pretty much shutting down the offense, and trying to be positive with everything that we do. Obviously you learn from everything that happens and you talk about it a little bit, but the positive today for us is that we pitched well. We pitched good enough to win.”

Wehiwa Aloy walked with one out in the bottom of the first. Logan Maxwell then singled moving Aloy to third. Aloy scored on a sacrifice ground out by bother Kuhio Aloy moving the Hogs to within 5-1.

In the bottom of the second, Cam Kozeal hit a line shot deep to right center field. Moerman, in right field, and center fielder Isaac Humphrey collided going for the fly. Both hit the ground and Kozeal circled the bases for an inside the park home run. After a nine-minute delay, Moerman had to leave the game and was replaced by Hayden Federico.

Little did anyone know that would be the end of the scoring for the two teams. But it wasn’t like the Hogs didn’t have some opportunities. With two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the sixth Arkansas rallied. Kuhio Aloy walked, Ryder Helfrick singled and then Kozeal walked to load the bases. However, Will McCausland, Ole Miss’ second pitcher of the day, struck out Brent Iredale to end the threat.

“I didn’t think their five runs would hold up,” Van Horn said. “I thought we’d score five but we didn’t, so hats off to them for that.”

Then, in bottom of the seventh, opportunity knocked again for the Hogs. Reese Robinett was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Justin Thomas Jr. struck out. Charles Davalan then doubled moving Robinett to third with just one out. However, Wehiwa Aloy then struck out and Maxwell flied out to right field to end the inning.

The Hogs went down in order in both the eighth and ninth innings. Ole Miss (38-19) moves to Saturday’s semifinals facing either LSU or Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. Those two teams played after the Hogs, Ole Miss game.

Root (6-5) took the loss. He allowed seven hits, five runs, only one earned, walked two and struck out four. Gabe Gaeckle pitched three innings, Cole Gibler 1.2 and Christian Foutch 0.1. The three Arkansas relievers combined to allow just three hits, no runs, struck out nine and walked just one in five innings.

“I thought Zach got a couple back bad breaks in the first inning,” Van Horn said. “Spotted him five; felt like they’d of scored maybe one. We don’t — we fielded the ball all year and we’ve turned double plays, and we didn’t do it today, and it cost us.

“But the positive for me today was Gaeckle and Gibler and then Foutch coming in and getting a one-hitter. But Zach threw pretty good. He gave up some hits, but five runs, one run was earned. He should have been off the field pretty quick a couple innings in, and who knows how the game would have turned out.”

Riley Maddox (6-5) got the win for Ole Miss. He worked 5.2 innings allowing three hits, two runs, walked a pair and fanned seven. McCausland, Mason Morris and Connor Spencer pitched for the Rebels. Spencer earned his sixth save of the season. They held the Razorbacks five hits in the game. They struck out 11 Razorbacks and walked three.