The University of Mississippi Athletics
Zabowski's Walk-Off Lifts Team Oley to Pizza Bowl XIX Victory
11/5/2018 | Baseball
Rebels Conclude Fall Season With Spirited Scrimmage
OXFORD, Miss. – Team Oley had mustered just two hits through eight innings of Friday night's annual Pizza Bowl, but his team's lack of offensive productivity wasn't on the mind of Cole Zabowski in his final plate appearance in the bottom of the 10th inning. With one on and one out, Zabowski called game and lifted a fastball from the arm of Parker Caracci 366 feet over the right field wall to crown Team Oley the 2018 Pizza Bowl champions by a final score of 6-4.
The Rebels delivered a spectacle of a ballgame in the fall's ultimate intrasquad, with Team Oley and Team Fitz locked in a virtual dead-heat throughout most of the game. The arms of Team Fitz kept any threats from Team Oley at bay for most of the game's early innings, while the defense of Team Oley kept managing to thwart the powerful bats of Team Fitz with timely defensive stops.
Redshirt senior Michael Fitzsimmons gave his team his all as the head coach, architect, and first baseman of Team Fitz. The veteran reached base all but once, went 3-for-4, and accounted for three of his team's four runs with a run in the second, a solo home run in the fourth, and a RBI double in the ninth.
Over in the first base dugout, Ryan Olenek contributed heavily to his team's victory effort as well, driving in a run late in the eighth, and reaching base with a single in the 10th to put one on for Zabowski's game-sealing homer one batter later.
Zabowski was relatively quiet throughout the game's first nine frames, reaching base twice but coming into the 10th 0-for-2 nonetheless. No matter for Team Oley, as Zabowski predicted a walk-off in the dugout before his at-bat, and delivered on his promise just a few moments later with a towering shot to right field.
The quartet of Houston Roth, Kaleb Hill, Max Cioffi, and Doug Nikhazy had kept Team Fitz in the driver's seat through eight innings, allowing three runs on just two hits. Anthony Servideo scored in the first on a passed ball, Tim Elko blasted a solo homer in the fourth, and Olenek plated another in the seventh on a sacrifice fly, but the arms of Team Fitz managed to mostly stifle the bats of Team Oley.
The four pitchers for Team Fitz each threw the maximum two innings that the game's rules allowed. Roth kept Team Oley hitless while adding a strikeout, while Hill and Nikhazy both allowed exactly one run and one hit with a strikeout apiece. Cioffi was his team's strongest arm, letting just one baserunner reach on a walk, while striking out two.
The offense of Team Oley truly came alive in the ninth, when Fitzsimmons elected for the Rebel closer out of the bullpen, Parker Caracci. No. 65's first batter faced, Cooper Johnson, took an early fastball deep to left field for a solo home run, and two hits an inning later would score the second and third runs in just two innings to seal the deal for Team Oley.
Team Oley, however, had to run through the ranks of their bullpen just to survive the offensive onslaught of Team Fitz. Olenek used six pitchers over 10 innings, starting with the electrifying Will Ethridge, and relieving him with Tyler Myers, Gunnar Hoglund, Ray Falk, Connor Green, and Taylor Broadway.
Fitzsimmons crossed home for his team's first two runs, one in the second and another in the fourth. After reaching base on a hit-by-pitch his first at-bat, Fitzsimmons made it around the base path and scored on a Michael Spears single. A solo homer his next at-bat gave his team a slight 2-1 edge in the fourth inning.
Thomas Dillard made an appearance on the stat sheet with a RBI single in the seventh, giving Team Fitz a one-run edge late in the game. Fitzsimmons doubled his team's lead with a RBI double an inning later, in what he hoped put the game out of reach for Team Oley.
While the bats of Team Fitz sputtered into the final inning, however, the offense of Team Oley did not, plating three in the final two frames, including Zabowski's dramatic finish, to give Team Oley bragging rights and pizza.
The 2018 Pizza Bowl officially concludes fall baseball at Swayze Field, in an offseason that saw lots of veteran development and dramatic entrances for a slew of newcomers.
The Rebels will next hit the field on Feb. 15, when Ole Miss welcomes Wright State to Oxford to officially kick off the 2019 baseball season.
For all Ole Miss Baseball news and information, visit the official athletics site OleMissSports.com. For more social media updates, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissBSB, on Facebook at Ole Miss Baseball and on Instagram at olemissbsb.
