The University of Mississippi Athletics
Game 1: Ole Miss 2, Furman 0
3/10/2017 | Baseball, Blog
In what turned into a pitchers' duel between two extremely talented pitchers that were dealing, Ole Miss behind the dominant performance from Friday ace David Parkinson squeaked by Furman for the series opening win. The Rebel offense battled all night at the plate against the Paladin's top-of-the-line starter Will Gaddis to scratch across the two runs for the 2-0 shutout victory.
Player of the Game: David Parkinson. When you take a no-hitter into the eight inning, you're going to be the player of the game. The Rebels only supplied him with two runs, but that was plenty for the left-hander. He allowed only two baserunners all night and faced the minimum while never allowing a runner to reach second base. He had every pitch working and completely overpowered Furman batters for eight innings. He struck out nine and retired eight more on groundouts as Furman didn't even manage much solid contact against him.
Key Moment: After Parkinson excited, the Paladins mounted their biggest rally of the game. The first two batters of the ninth reached against Rebel closer Will Stokes. However, Stokes was able to work out of it unscathed. The next Furman batter failed to get a sacrifice bunt down for the first out of the inning. The next lined out to third, leading to the runner on second being doubled off for the third out of the inning and an Ole Miss victory.
Number of the Game: 0. Furman never managed to advance a baserunner to third base all night as Parkinson dominated. The runner reaching second in the ninth was the only time a runner was in scoring position, and that was as far as he advanced before Stokes worked out of the inning.
Quotable: "David was terrific," Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. "His curveball was really good tonight, and he was able to throw it in the strike zone. The changeup was terrific tonight. That's what he didn't have last week at Minute Maid. He struggled with his offspeed. We talked a lot this week about making some first pitch strikes, whatever it is. I thought he did that tonight, especially with the offspeed. He was able to own the inside part of the plate to those right handers and make it tough on them."
