OXFORD | Ole Miss made offensive mistakes and left a plethora of runners on base, but the Rebels outlasted Florida’s beleaguered pitching staff in the series opener.
The Gators, down four expected contributors, including two weekend starters, because of injury, walked 17 and hit five during three losses against Georgia last weekend.
Ole Miss picked up that pace.
The Rebels used eight hits and 13 Gator walks to move past Florida, 7-5, and take the first of three games in Oxford. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Friday at 3 p.m. because of expected rain on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for nine innings.
Ole Miss is 20-5 overall and 5-2 in the SEC, while UF is 18-10 and 0-7
Ole Miss stranded 14 runners, including the bases loaded three times and had just one two-out RBI. The Rebels were 5-for-20 with runners on and 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position. All three innings ending with the bases loaded finished with strikeouts. Florida only left five on and finished 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
The Rebels hit four doubles, including two from Brayden Randle, who didn’t start the game, and got four RBIs from Will Furniss.
“We weren’t very good tonight, which is hard to be critical because of seven runs, but it’s true,” Bianco said. “We walked 13 times, hit four doubles, had some hits and only scoured seven runs. That’s hard to do.”
Furniss’ one-out double in the fifth brought in two runs, and he also had two sacrifice flies. Ole Miss scored a runner from third with fewer than two outs on five of eight chances.
Hunter Elliot held things together with an ace of an effort to keep Ole Miss undefeated in his starts this season. Elliott scattered six hits and struck out seven without a walk. Two doubles, the home run and a hit by pitch led to just three runs.
Elliott made all his mistakes in one inning, when four straight runners reached base, including nine-hole hitter Wilson hammering a ball out to left-center. It gave Florida a 3-2 lead at the time, but it would be all Elliott allowed in 5.1 innings.
“I thought I lost some focus in that third inning,” Elliott said. “It was a lot of changeups tonight because I didn’t have my fastball. I made the pitches to get off the field, and that’s always the goal.”
The lefty retired nine of the next 10 after that four-batter spurt and left after a double and two outs in the sixth. Mason Morris got a strikeout to finish the inning and gave up two runs on four hits in 2.1 innings.
With Ole Miss ahead by two runs, Brayden Jones picked up his first save of the season with three straight outs including two strikeouts. He hit 100 MPH multiple times with his fastball and threw 11 strikes in 15 pitches.
“BJ was just dominant,” Bianco said. “We needed that, and that’s a good offense he shut down.”
Closer Connor Spencer is inactive for the weekend because of shoulder soreness. Ole Miss would have rostered him if it were a normal Friday-to-Sunday series.
Florida used seven pitchers but none of the six relievers threw more than 30 pitches, and five of the six threw fewer than 20 pitches. The Gators are hopeful ace Liam Peterson returns from injury on Friday.
Luke Cheng and Mitchell Sanford collided in foul territory during the first inning. Sanford temporarily left the game before returning courtesy of a relatively new rule that allows a potentially concussed player to return to the same lineup spot if he passes protocol. Brayden Randle replaced Cheng to start the fourth inning. Cheng missed three games because of a concussion two weeks ago.
Cheng had pain in his side while throwing following the collision on Friday. Bianco expects him to play on Friday.
