Rebels complete season sweep of Southern Miss with blowout win

Ole Miss coasted past Southern Miss, 11-3, on Tuesday at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The Rebels (28-6) rode a solid start from Houston Roth and a six-run second inning that gave Ole Miss plenty of cushion. Ole Miss returns this weekend with a three-game series at Vanderbilt.

Roth gave up three runs on five hits in five innings but threw four scoreless before the Golden Eagles put together a frame with three hits including two doubles. USM has a potent lineup, and the early success allowed the Rebels to settle into the game and put together offense against Southern Miss starter JC Keys. That's something that hasn't happened often enough of late for the Rebels.

The sophomore struck out seven, walked four and threw 54 strikes in 97 pitches. Even though Ole Miss was up 7-0 at the time, the key inning for Roth was the fourth when the Golden Eagles put the first two on base. Roth struck out three straight after that without going to a three-ball count.

"I thought he was terrific," Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. "He’ll say he walked too many, and that’s true, but tonight was a tough strike zone, and he competed with that. It’s a very good lineup, and they have four guys that are so good in the middle of it. It can be scary getting through it."

The right-hander was also one of the heroes in Ole Miss' win over Southern Miss in Oxford earlier this year. He gave up one run in five relief innings and gave the Rebels the opportunity to erase a big deficit and win, 7-6.

Roth entered the week fourth in the SEC with 18 strikeouts looking.

With the blowout victory, Ole Miss has swept the season series from Southern Miss for the second year in a row. The Rebels have won four straight and five of the last six in the series.

Ole Miss is now 21-1 in nonconference play, threatening the 2002 team's 23-3 mark which is the best in Bianco's 18-year tenure. The Rebels have out-of-SEC games remaining with Mississippi State (Governor's Cup), Arkansas Pine Bluff and two with Arkansas State.

While it's a top-15 win in the polls, Southern Miss isn't liked as well by the computers. The Golden Eagles (22-10) are 50th in the RPI which is a positive for Ole Miss but not to the expected level considering the polls. The Rebels are ninth in RPI but have only the No. 216 nonconference strength of schedule -- a metric that selection committees have used to reward and punish teams in the past.

However, with the excellent record, Ole Miss has a nonconference RPI of 12.

Tyler Keenan, who has been the SEC Freshman of the Week two straight weeks, had three hits and accounted for three runs. Ole Miss also got two hits each from Chase Cockrell, Thomas Dillard, Cole Zabowski and Will Golsan.

Zabowski, Golsan and Keenan all singled in the second inning before Cockrell sent a two-strike curve ball over the wall for the big blow of the game. The 4-through-8 spots in the Ole Miss order went a combined 11-for-22.

"This is a team that’s always responded after a loss," Bianco said. "It starts with the offense. Huge inning and no hit bigger than Cockrell with the big home run. We were efficient throughout the lineup."

Ole Miss was 10-for-20 with runners on base.

Ole Miss has had to ride its key relievers the past few weeks, pushing them to multiple appearances in weekends and moonlighting them occasionally during the midweek. For the second straight midweek game, the Rebels picked up a win without going to their main bullpen arms.

Roth's five innings and the early runs were the keys, and then Ole Miss sent in Connor Green, Jordan Fowler and Austin Miller to finish things off. The bullpen threw four scoreless innings.

Green hasn't given up a run in six innings this season, and Miller was very impressive for the second straight week. The 6-foot-7 right-hander finished off the final 2.1 innings without allowing a hit and forcing four groundouts in eight batters faced.

Miller threw 21 of 34 pitches for strikes and has given up only one earned run in nine innings on the year. He has 13 strikeouts and two walks.