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Mississippi State
Rebels Rally to Complete Sweep of Mississippi State, 8-7
5/9/2015 | Baseball
OXFORD, Miss. -- Trailing by five runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Ole Miss baseball team rallied to tie the game, forcing extra innings before scoring the game-winning run in the 10th to cap off the comeback and beat rival Mississippi State, 8-7, Saturday evening, May 9, at Swayze Field. The wild come-from-behind victory completed the Rebels' (28-24, 14-13 SEC) SEC series sweep over the Bulldogs (24-27, 8-19 SEC), while increasing their winning streak to a season-high four games.
The win also marked a season sweep for Ole Miss over Mississippi State as the Rebels claimed the Governor's Cup, April 28. The last time the Rebels won all four games over MSU in a single season came during the 2010 campaign.
Sophomore Colby Bortles delivered a two-RBI single up the middle that tied the game in the ninth, and freshman Nic Perkins hit a chopper into left field that plated pinch-runner Tate Blackman for the walk-off hit in the 10th. Blackman had the Rebels' only other walk-off in 2015, earlier this season against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, March 18.
The five-run comeback was the second time this season that Ole Miss rallied after trailing by four-or-more runs entering the ninth inning. The Rebels were down four against No. 1 Vanderbilt, April 10, before Bortles' grand slam tied the game in the ninth. Ole Miss went on to win that game, 6-5, in 16 innings. The last time the Rebels scored five runs in the ninth to force extra innings was in a 10-9 victory over Vanderbilt, April 7, 2002.
Ole Miss improved to 3-0 in extra-inning games in 2015 with all of them occurring in SEC play. The Rebels defeated a pair of top-ranked team in extra innings earlier this season in LSU and Vanderbilt.
Senior Sikes Orvis led Ole Miss at the plate with a career-high four hits, including a pair of solo home runs. The pair of homers gave Orvis his third multi-home run game of his career as well as his second in the past four games. The two-homer day brought Orvis' total to 14 on the season, 32 for his career, and five over the last four games.
Sophomore Wyatt Short (4-1) earned the win after pitching a perfect 10th inning that included two strikeouts. The victory completed a fantastic weekend for the southpaw as Short also recorded saves in the two previous games against the in-state rival.
"I think that's one of the things that will get lost today in all the excitement was how special he was this weekend," noted head coach Mike Bianco about his closer's success. "Two saves and a win, pitching three days in a row against your archrival, and being a Mississippi kid, what a terrific weekend for Wyatt."
As a team, Ole Miss tallied nine hits, including four from Orvis. Sophomore Errol Robinson added two base-knocks with one being a key RBI single in the ninth to keep the Rebels alive. Perkins, in his first week as the Rebels' starting designated hitter, increased his hitting streak to five games with the winning single in the 10th.
Senior Scott Weathersby pitched five innings for the Rebels in the third start of his career before sophomore Evan Anderson headed to the mound. Anderson threw three innings and allowed only one run on two hits while striking out three. Reliever Jacob Waguespack entered the game in the ninth and threw a complete inning of relief.
Mississippi State pitcher Austin Sexton lasted 8.1 innings and surrendered four runs on six hits, striking out five and walking three. Relief pitcher Zac Houston went 0.1 innings, giving up three earned runs. Those three runs tied the score before MSU brought Dakota Hudson (1-1) to the mound for 0.2 innings. The Rebels got the game-tying hit and game-winning hit off Hudson as he took the loss on the mound, his first of the season.
The Bulldogs got three hits each from catcher Gavin Collins and second baseman John Holland. As a team, MSU recorded 14 hits throughout the 10-inning affair.
Mississippi State came out swinging the bats in the first inning. After three consecutive hits, Weathersby pitched the Rebels out of a bases-loaded jam, allowing just one Bulldog to cross the dish.
The Bulldogs held a 2-0 lead when the fourth inning began, but they tallied another three runs after loading the bases for the second time in the game. The Rebels fought back later in the fourth when Orvis launched his first home run of the game, putting Ole Miss on the board and cutting the MSU lead to four, 5-1.
Orvis played long ball in his next at-bat as he hit his second home run of the contest during the sixth inning. Once again, the Orvis homer helped decrease the deficit, but Ole Miss still trailed by three , 5-2, through six.
Mississippi State added two runs in the ninth to increase the margin to five before the Rebels rallied in the ninth. Orvis, continuing to provide the majority of the production in the contest, led off the inning with a single to right field for his fourth hit of the day. Ole Miss was down to its final out of the game before pinch-hitter Henry Lartigue was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Robinson singled to score another run, and Will Golsan drew a bases-loaded walk to reach as the winning run on first. The struggles with command forced the Bulldogs to go to their bullpen with the tying run on second base and Bortles stepping up to the plate. Belting a grand slam to tie a game in the ninth earlier this season, the sophomore showed his clutch hitting once again by smacking the first pitch he saw up the middle and into center field. Two Rebels crossed the plate to give Ole Miss its fifth run after being down to its final out. Batting for the second time in the inning, Orvis was retired for the first time in the game, but the damage was done; the rally brought free baseball to the electric crowd of 9,743 at Swayze Field.
In the 10th inning, with the game tied at seven, Short headed to the mound and did his job by retiring the Bulldogs in order. During the bottom of the inning, Austin Knight reached first base on a walk before moving over to second on a sacrifice bunt by J.B. Woodman. Using heads up base running, the senior catcher advanced to third on a passed ball before Blackman entered the game as a pinch runner. With the winning run 90 feet away, Perkins chopped a breaking ball that bounced over the MSU third baseman's head, scoring Blackman and completing the memorable comeback victory.
"I knew it was getting through at contact," exclaimed Perkins about hit game-winning hit. "I'm pretty good at chopping the ball and getting it to bounce over the infielder's head. When I hit that one with the infield in, I knew it was going over his head."
Up next, Ole Miss will take its four-game winning streak to Jonesboro, Arkansas on to take on Arkansas State, Tuesday, May 12. The two teams are slated for a 6:30 p.m. CT first pitch in the Rebels' final midweek game of the regular season. As always, fans can catch the Rebels in action on the Ole Miss Radio Network.
