Ole Miss continues red-hot offense in win over Little Rock
OXFORD | Will Furniss hit three home runs in 147 plate appearances during his freshman season. He has three in as many games after the first-inning shot on Tuesday.
Furniss hit a three-run home run in the first inning, and Ole Miss outpaced Little Rock, 12-6, to open a five-game week and move above .500 for the first time since an opening day win over Hawaii.
"I'm trying to turn mishits into home runs," Furniss said. "I think being stronger is allowing for more lift. I hit balls hard last year, but it was a lot of top spin and ground balls."
The Rebels (5-4) face Missouri State at 4 p.m. on Wednesday and host Iowa for three games starting Friday. Little Rock is 4-4 on the season.
Ole Miss was 8-for-21 with runners on base and have scored 49 total runs in its last 20 innings.The Rebels hit four home runs on Tuesday.
Furniss, a year ago, hit .298 with a .367 on-base percentage and .397 slugging percentage. He struck out 33 times and walked 13 times in 131 at-bats.
The sophomore has those three hits in 12 at-bats but has walked five times with two strikeouts.
Jackson Ross had three hits including a double and a home run. He was named the D1Baseball SEC Player of the Week on Monday after going 8-for-11 with four home runs, eight runs scored and five walks.
Ross’ seventh-inning shot was his fifth home run in the last four games. He’s hit a home run ini four straight games.
Ethan Groff had three hits and two stolen bases. Reagan Burford and Andrew Fischer each had two hits including a home run.
Wes Mendes started and went three innings, giving up two hits and two runs with five strikeouts and two walks. The freshman threw 34 of 58 pitches for strikes.
Mendes stranded the bases loaded in the first inning. The first two batters of the game reached and with one out and the bases loaded, Mendes got back-to-back strikeouts.
"It's tough to evaluate that, but you can see he's special," Mike Bianco said. "A lot of young guys wouldn't have gotten out of the first inning."
Ole Miss scored three runs in three separate innings. An Ethan Lege sacrifice fly and a Ross two-run double moved Ole Miss ahead 6-2 in the fourth, and the Rebels added three more with a Treyson Hughes sacrifice fly and Burford two-run double in the sixth.
Little Rock used a solo home run off Brayden Jones to cut it to a four-run game in the eighth, but Mitch Murrell got two straight outs to strand two runners and leave the tying run in the on-deck circle. Murrell also thew a scoreless ninth inning.