Ole Miss needed a boost, a big moment to salvage something from Friday.
Campbell Smithwick supplied it. Then, Will McCausland finished it.
Smithwick pinch hit in the top of the ninth and yanked a 2-2 pitch over the right-field wall, as his teammates in the bullpen celebrated. It broke a tie, and after three straight McCausland strikeouts in the bottom half, the Rebels had a 3-1 win over Kentucky to split the doubleheader and set up a rubber match on Saturday at 10 a.m. CDT.
Kentucky used a lot of Ole Miss charity to take the opener, 5-4, and put pressure on the Rebels (23-7, 7-4) to not come up empty – especially considering the forecast isn’t ideal for the final day in Lexington.
Kentucky is 18-10 and 5-6 in the SEC.
Offense carried Ole Miss to its 6-3 SEC record entering the weekend, but pitching picked it up in a much-needed way on Friday night. Riley Maddox allowed only one run in five innings, Ryne Rodriguez threw a scoreless sixth, and McCausland retired all nine he faced for his second win of the season.
McCausland struck out five and used three ground outs in his 30 pitches that included 25 strikes.
“That’s the most dominant he’s been, maybe even included the Clemson game opening weekend,” Mike Bianco said of McCausland.
In that 15-5 win over the Tigers, McCausland struck out eight in 3.2 innings.
Maddox struck out six, and as a staff, Ole Miss had 12 strikeouts to the one walk. Kentucky was 1-for-10 with runners on base and 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. The Wildcats’ one run came after a Will Furniss error on a pick off attempt in the second inning and was unearned.
“I know I have that in me, and I proved it today,” Maddox said. “I have been really struggling mentally, and that’s been the case… It’s been hard to get the thoughts out of there… I focused on the mitt and got after it.”
Smithwick has two home runs in his last 10 at-bats. Collin Reuter came in to hit, but Kentucky switched to Nile Adcock to avoid Reuter facing a lefty, as he’s hitting .429 with a 1.079 OPS against that side. Smithwick, then, took over for Reuter.
“He accidentally left one up, and I swung hard and hit it,” Smithwick said.
Ole Miss tied it in the fourth on a Hayden Federico sacrifice fly.
In game one, Hunter Elliott hit four batters and walked three others in five innings, allowing four runs. Mason Morris gave up just one – unearned – in 4.1 innings, but it wasn’t enough for the Rebels.
Kentucky won it with a run in the 10th on a one-out single off Brayden Jones. Morris hit the first batter of the inning, and a balk advanced him to second. After a foul out and walk, Jones entered with two on. Jones committed an error on a pick off, and after a stolen base, UK singled to left field for the walk-off winner.
The Rebels were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and out-hit Kentucky, 13-6. The 10 free passes and one balk were too much to overcome.
Luke Hill went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, and Austin Fawley had three hits in his return to Lexington.
“We just made too many mistakes,” Bianco said. “You have to keep them off the bases and play well and not give anything for free. We didn’t do that despite out-hitting them.”
