The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Louisville
Rebels Strike Back, Down No. 8 Louisville 8-3
3/13/2010 | Baseball
Barrett (4-0) picked up the win in 6.2 innings of work, holding the eighth-ranked Cardinals to three runs on six hits with four walks and nine strikeouts. Barrett left the game in the seventh inning with a man on and two outs and Ole Miss holding to an 8-2 lead. Eric Callender then worked the final 2.1 innings to close out the win for the Rebels.
Dean Kiekhefer (1-1) suffered the loss for the Cardinals as he allowed six runs on five hits with three walks and a strikeout.
Taylor Hightower was hot at the plate, going 3-for-4 on the afternoon and scoring a run as the Rebels used an efficient offense to hand Louisville its first loss of the season. Nine Rebels tallied hits in the game as Ole Miss used 11 hits to drive in all eight runs and took advantage of five walks to get runners on base.
"I'm proud of the way we responded today after a tough loss and an emotional game last night," said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. "Our offense responded immediately, putting six runs on the board in the first two innings.
"Aaron Barrett was really competing on the mound. He pitched sharp at the beginning and really grinded it out in the middle innings. Then Callender came in an just filled up the zone again for us."
Ole Miss got off to a quick start on the bases with a walk of Alex Yarbrough to open the Rebel first and then a double from Taylor Hashman put both runners in scoring position. Yarbrough scored on a sac fly from Tim Ferguson that advanced Hashman to third. Hashman then scored on a ground out from Matt Smith to give Ole Miss the 2-0 lead.
A leadoff walk of Mike Snyder in the second inning got another rally going for the Rebels who used a walk, and three straight singles to push two more runs home. A fielder's choice to third from Hashman gave the Cardinals their first out of the inning before Ferguson grounded out to second but drove in a third run. Smith then singled up the middle to score Hashman and put Ole Miss up 6-0.
Louisville scored in the fourth with a Phil Wunderlich single and an RBI double from Jeff Arnold to cut the lead to five at 6-1.
Ole Miss got the run back in the fifth inning with a sac fly from Miles Hamblin that scored Miller. Miller doubled to open the frame and moved to third on a fly out to left field from David Phillips. The Miller run put the Rebels back on top by six with a 7-1 advantage.
Louisville put two more runs up in the seventh inning with a two-out rally that took advantage of a single, a double and a single to trim the Rebel lead to four at 7-3. The Cardinals would get no closer, however, as Ole Miss would add an eighth run in the bottom half of the inning.
Neither team would score again as Ole Miss would go on to claim the 8-3 victory.
The two teams take the field for the rubber-match at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field. Ole Miss is slated to start junior southpaw Matt Tracy, while Louisville is expected to send right-hander Tony Zych to the mound.
