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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Auburn
Pomeranz' Career Night Pushes Rebels Past Auburn 9-2
5/2/2009 | Baseball
AUBURN, Ala. -- Drew Pomeranz struck out a career-high 10 batters and Rory McKean held the Tigers off down the stretch as No. 7 Ole Miss (34-13, 14-8 SEC) defeated Auburn (27-20, 8-15 SEC) by a score of 9-2 on Friday night at Plainsman Park.
Pomeranz (5-2) picked up the win as he worked 6.0 innings and held the Tigers to one run on three hits with three walks and the 10 strikeouts. McKean picked up his first save of the season a he held the Tigers to one run on three hits with no walks and two strikeouts over the final 3.0 innings.
Jon Luke Jacobs (3-4) suffered the loss for the Tigers as he allowed six runs on nine hits with three walks and five strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work.
"We were able to put the big fifth inning together with two outs tonight," said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. "We got a big play out of David Phillips to get us out of the first inning when he threw out Mummey at second. That could have made things a different game. We were also able to get the big hit with runners in scoring position.
"Drew was able to battle all night. He has a lot of competitiveness. He's one of those aces on Friday night who is just a warrior out there."
Ole Miss got on the board in the second inning when David Phillips came up with a sac fly to right that scored Matt Smith. Smith walked before moving to second on a single through the left from Zach Miller. Both runners advanced on sac bunt from Kyle Henson before Smith scored on the Phillips fly out to give Ole Miss the 1-0 lead.
Auburn answered in the third with a run scored as part of a two-out rally. Wes Gilmer opened the inning with a walk before taking second on a sac bunt. Pomeranz struck out the next batter before Gilmer would score on a single to left from Justin Hargett. Hargett moved to second on the throw to the plate and was forced to stop as the throw hit Gilmer on the way home as he scored.
The Rebels answered with a two-out rally of their own in the top of the fourth as Smith scored on a single through the right side from Phillips. Smith doubled and advanced to third on a fly out from Miller before scoring on the Phillips hits to put Ole Miss back on top 2-1.
Heads up base running on a single from Matt Snyder gave the Rebels a 3-1 lead in the fifth, as Henry moved from first to third on the single to right from Snyder, but a throwing error from the right fielder sent the ball sailing into left field and allowed Henry to score on the play.
Two batters later, with Snyder on third and Smith on second, Miller came up with a two-RBI single to left field to push both runners home and give Ole Miss a 5-1 lead.
The Rebels continued to build on the lead in the sixth as Henry again scored from first on a double off the wall from Power, pushing the advantage out to 7-1. Ole Miss tacked on another run with a single up the middle from Snyder that scored Power. The Rebels went on to load the bases before Henson drew a walk to push another run across and leave Ole Miss with a 9-1 run after five complete.
Back-to-back singles to open the ninth helped Auburn spark a rally as Bradley Ray came to the plate with runners at the corners and drove in Hunter Morris from third on his grounder to short that saw Kevin Patterson thrown out at second. The Tigers would get no other runs as McKean got the next batter to ground into a double play to end the game.
Several Rebels had big nights at the plate, including a 2-for-2 night from David Phillips that included three RBI. Matt Snyder was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, while Zach Miller and Matt Smith also came up with multiple hits on the night.
Jordan Henry continued his streak of reaching base as he drew three walks on the night and scored two runs.
Ole Miss and Auburn will face-off again in the second game of the series at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday at Plainsman Park. The game will be televised by CSS.
