The sheer numbers don't explain why Ole Miss fell to Oklahoma on Saturday in Norman.
The Rebels were 5-for-13 with runners on base and had twice as many hits as Oklahoma with runners in scoring position. Hitting .385 with runners on would seem like a solid statistic, but missed chances doomed Ole Miss, as the Sooners clinched the series with a 5-3 win.
Ole Miss has lost three straight SEC games and is 32-15 overall and 12-11 in the league with the finale at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The Rebels went 20 innings in SEC play without a run scored before Austin Fawley hit a solo home run in the second inning.
Oklahoma is a game ahead in the league standings.
Ole Miss had 10 hits but didn't capitalize in three key innings. The Rebels got the leadoff batter on twice -- also just twice in two days -- and failed once to get a runner home from third with fewer than two outs.
"Another disappointing day offensively," Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. "We got hits but it’s not hits, it’s runs and to put them together. Some days you put the chain together with at-bats and you get that run or crooked number. Credit to them, but the pitching today wasn’t like last night. No excuse on that end for us."
In the fourth inning, Will Furniss and Fawley opened with singles, but a strikeout, a fielder's choice and a ground out ended the inning. Oklahoma sat down nine straight until the seventh inning when Collin Reuter walked and Ryan Moerman doubled to open the frame.
Isaac Humphrey singled in both with no outs, but after a Luke Cheng sacrifice and an infield single by Mitchell Sanford, Luke Hill walked, and Judd Utermark grounded into a double play to end the inning.
The Rebels put two in scoring position with two outs in the ninth, but Hill struck out on three pitches to end the game.
Ole Miss starter Riley Maddox gave up five runs on eight hits in 4.1 innings. He gave up three in the first off four hits and a walk in the inning. Then, after three consecutive zeroes, he yielded a second home run and left after a one-out walk.
Maddox walked two and threw 47 of 75 pitches for strikes.
Walker Hooks gave up a single and two walks, walking in the Sooners' fifth and final run. Hooks added a scoreless inning, as did Hudson Calhoun and Gunnar Dennis. The Ole Miss bullpen tossed 3.2 shutout frames.
Oklahoma starter Cade Crossland allowed five hits and two runs with eight strikeouts and a walk in six innings, giving the Sooners 13 innings and only two runs given up by its first two starting pitchers.
The Rebels had five hits and a walk in the final three innings but only two runs.
Fawley's home run is his 14th of the season. He and Sanford each had two hits. Hill reached base twice.
"We have to be tougher," Bianco said about what he said after the game to his team. "It’s easy to fracture and look at one another and it’s hitters or pitchers or coaches or I did my job and not my fault. That translates to losing. We win and lose together and need to be a cohesive group. Salvage a game tomorrow and move on."
