OXFORD | Andy Sawyers wanted to talk about it.
The bases were full, and Tim Elko, knee brace and torn ACL and all, was up next in a scoreless game. The Southeast Missouri head coach gathered his team around the mound, and ace Dylan Dodd uncorked an outside fastball on the first pitch following the powwow.
“I thought I got the fastball away, but he was expecting it,” Dodd said.
Elko, showing tremendous opposite-field power, dropped the barrel on it, and right fielder Andrew Keck barely reacted. The beer showers shot up like the Fountains of Bellagio, and the grand slam put the Rebels up four runs.
“He got us in the first inning, and we had to attack the fastball,” Elko said. “He told me I didn’t have to let the first one go. Be ready to attack from the beginning. I didn’t take that for granted and put a good swing on it.”
Ole Miss (42-19) added on as Dodd tired in the 6-2 victory that moves the Rebels to a Saturday 5 p.m. matchup with No. 3 seed Florida State. Southeast Missouri (30-21) and Southern Miss play an elimination game at 11 a.m. The Seminoles won the opener, 5-2, over the Golden Eagles.
Dodd, who had a .216 batting average against with 113 strikeouts and 14 walks entering he day, threw only 16 pitches through the first two innings, but the Rebels set things up with back-to-back singles from Cael Baker and John Rhys Plumlee and a Jacob Gonzalez walk.
That’s Elko’s fifth home run since returning on May 1, though he’s only gotten more than three at-bats in a game three times since then.
The Rebels pushed Dodd to 119 pitches in six innings.
Only Gonzalez reached base off Dodd the first seven Ole Miss batters of the game, but the Rebels put seven on base out of the next 11 plate appearances, keying on Dodd’s fastball and his inability to locate the breaking ball for a strike.
TJ McCants had a two-out RBI single in the fifth after SEMO put up two in the top half of the inning, and Peyton Chatagnier had an RBI single in the sixth. Baker led off that inning with a hit, as well.
Ole Miss was only 4-for-17 with runners on and 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position, but Elko’s blast a couple timely liners were enough later on.
The Rebels will turn to ace Doug Nikhazy against the Seminoles, thanks to a solid night of mound work for the Rebels.
"It sets us up really well,” Elko said. “I was proud of how Derek went out there and filled it up.”
Derek Diamond struggled with pitch count issues but gave up just one run in 4.1 innings, avoiding the crooked number and giving the Rebels time to key on Dodd. He struck out five and worked around two hits and three walks in 92 pitches, 50 strikes.
Diamond stranded two runners in the fourth that gave Ole Miss a shutdown inning after taking the lead the beginning before.
Jack Dougherty bridged to Taylor Broadway, yielding two runs in three innings. Broadway got the final five outs with three strikeouts and only 17 pitches. The save gives him 14 for the season, a new school record.
“As a reliever, that was the moment you live for,” Broadway said.
The bottom four in the Ole Miss lineup got six combined hits and three runs, including that Plumlee hit. Plumlee also made a quality read off the bat and catch with a runner at third and two outs in the third inning.
SEMO had its best hitter, Tyler Wilbur, at the plate. Plumlee caught the ball as he was sliding, and the big inning followed right after Ole Miss got to the dugout.
“John Rhys has been a spark plug for us for a long time,” Bianco said.
