Rebs explode for 5-run eighth inning to beat No. 24 UNCW, stay undefeated
OXFORD | Ole Miss faced its most adversity this young season with a deficit in the bottom of the eighth, and the Rebels responded with an offensive explosion.
The No. 17 Rebels scored five in the inning to beat No. 24 UNC Wilmington, 8-4, and move to 6-0 on the season. Ole Miss clinches the series and goes for the sweep at noon on Sunday.
The Seahawks (3-2) send sophomore right-hander Logan Beehler to the mound against Ole Miss sophomore right-hander Brady Feigl.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
James McArthur took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and had a career-high 11 strikeouts with only one walk in his second start of the season. The sophomore threw six innings and allowed one run -- that scored after he left the game -- and two hits. McArthur threw 60 strikes in 91 pitches.
The right-hander allowed just a leadoff walk in the third inning until there were two outs in the sixth inning. That third-inning runner never made it to second base, as two strikeouts and a pop up in the infield finished the frame. Robbie Thorburn singled to the right side to break up the no-hitter, and Wilmington's Nick Feight hit a leadoff double to start the seventh and end McArthur's day.
"I just got in the zone and attacked them," McArthur said. "I realized (the no-hitter going) in the sixth, but that came to an end pretty quickly. I was trying not to think about it."
McArthur struck out the side in the second inning, two in the third, two in the fourth and had a strikeout in every inning except that one-batter seventh. McArthur has only yielded five hits in 10.1 innings this season.
IT WAS OVER WHEN...
... Freshman Bryan Seamster hit a full-count fastball over the right-field wall in the eighth inning. After Tate Blackman had a two-strike RBI single to tie the game at four, Seamster, who had a single against Arkansas State in his only other at-bat this season, took UNCW closer Austin Magestro deep to give the Rebels the late lead.
"I was trying to get a base hit," Seamster said. "Hard on the ground, through a gap. I saw the pitch and I didn't know it was out of here. I knew I hit it well. It was a mistake in the middle of the plate."
Seamster had entered the game earlier as a pinch runner. Grae Kessinger walked and Ryan Olenek sacrifice bunted to set up Blackman.
Colby Bortles got his third hit of the day for an RBI, and Cole Zabowski picked up his fourth hit on a run-scoring single later in the inning to extend to the final score.
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