OXFORD | Ole Miss doesn’t quit. It’s a trait and a characteristic that has served the Rebels well during the first half of Southeastern Conference play.
Down four runs after Tennessee scored five in the fifth inning, Ole Miss scored five runs over three innings, using a run in the eighth to take the lead and move three outs from a series win over the No. 5 Volunteers.
Those three outs proved too much.
Tennessee worked a leadoff walk against Gunnar Dennis, who had been a bullpen bright spot on Sunday, and torched Brayden Jones for three hits, including a go-ahead home run out of the five batters he faced. The Volunteers stranded two Rebels in the bottom half and beat Ole Miss, 10-8, in the matchup between teams projected to host NCAA Regionals.
The Rebels are good enough on offense to get there, but days like this one put a spotlight on the nervy pitching situation. Ole Miss got 13 total innings out of its three starters, forcing 14 bullpen innings. It was one too many.
Hunter Elliott lasted just four innings on Friday, and Mason Morris saved the rest of the relievers with an elite five-inning outing. Riley Maddox went five and did every bit of his job in an Ole Miss win on Saturday.
Mason Nichols pitched well on Sunday, giving up only one earned run in four frames, but he didn’t come out for the fifth after only 61 pitches.
“When you try to draw it up, we were hopeful to get through four and just watching him and the lineup flipping over, it felt like the right time to go to the pen,” Mike Bianco said. “Obviously it wasn’t a very good bullpen day for us.
“We lacked outs. We knew it was a day, with Spencer unavailable, we’d have to piecemeal it together. We had some good guys but wasn’t their day.”
Walker Hooks yielded four hits and five runs in getting just three outs, and things unraveled after Dennis retired seven of the eight batters he faced prior to that ninth-inning walk.
Closer Connor Spencer wasn’t available after finishing off the one Ole Miss win of the weekend. Bianco said that left Jones as the next-best option, and he struggled for the third consecutive appearance.
Jones has allowed 12 of the last 15 batters to reach base, with that spread over those three different days.
“I don’t know (what’s been different the last three outings,” Bianco said about Jones. “I wish I had the answer. Just got to run him through it. One thing is he was up and down several times yesterday and didn’t want that to happen today. We weren’t sure when to shoot that bullet. We had the bullet ready and needed to go. He’s our best guy to go to. He’s just having a tough stretch here.”
In the finale against Arkansas, Jones allowed four hits including a home run in an inning. The right-hander has a 19.80 ERA in league play over eight outings and five innings. Outside of Morris, Hooks and Will McCausland have their most relief innings in SEC play and are carrying ERAs of 7.50 and 8.15, respectively.
This isn’t to pick on Jones or Hooks. It’s to magnify that for Ole Miss to get where it’s capable, Bianco and pitching coach Joel Mangrum must push the right buttons with the pitching staff. Whether that means shifting Morris’ role or altering niches in other places – temporarily or permanently -- there’s not a lot of margin, and the current plans are shaky.
That the Rebels are 27-9 and 9-6 is a credit to some correct moves and the lack of give-up, something that’s a 180 from last year’s club.
Maybe Dennis is a new option. Hudson Calhoun walked two but flashed plus stuff out of the four batters faced on Sunday. Alex Canney didn’t pitch this weekend but has a 1.80 SEC ERA in five innings.
There are pieces, but the puzzle isn’t an easy one. The quality record shouldn’t disguise from the need to get better.
The Rebels are in great shape at the midway point. Tweaks are necessary to stay that way.
“We certainly feel like we’ve left some stuff on the table,” Bianco said. “I know a lot of people can say that but could have closed out some games.”
