OXFORD | Ole Miss strengthened its ragged but present pulse on Friday night.
The Rebels put forth one of their best pitching performances of the season and shocked Texas A&M with a late rally in the series opener. Ole Miss scored two in the bottom of the eighth and beat the third-ranked Aggies, 4-3, in Oxford.
Game two is at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The win moves Ole Miss into 11th place in the SEC — one game ahead of LSU and two ahead of Missouri in the league standings. Auburn and one the others won’t make the SEC Tournament.
The Rebels (26-23, 10-15) need at least 13 regular season league wins to have a puncher’s chance at an NCAA Regional berth. After Friday, that means a 3-2 finish in the two games against the Aggies and three in Baton Rouge against LSU. There’s also a midweek remaining at Southern Miss.
Ole Miss’ RPI moved to 23 after the win.
“I’m really proud of them,” Mike Bianco said. “They kept fighting and really pitched well. Showed a lot of toughness.”
Texas A&M (41-9, 16-9) has lost three of four on its SEC two-weekend road trip after falling in two of three at LSU. The Aggies are 8-7 on the road and 33-3 in home and neutral site games.
Riley Maddox had his wisdom teeth removed on Monday after developing an infection. Mike Bianco was concerned Maddox wouldn’t be able to pitch, even asking the medical team if there was a workaround, but Maddox recovered quickly for his best outing of the season, given the opponent.
“Riley has been far better than his numbers,” Bianco said. “Between defense and run support we’ve let him down.”
The junior gave up three runs — just two earned — in six innings with seven strikeouts and three walks. He threw 66 of 98 pitches for strikes and used a sweeper for the first time this season, a slider-type wipeout pitch that former Rebel Jack Dougherty suggested he use along with his cutter.
Maddox and the Ole Miss staff have worked to make him more athletic with his delivery, which on Friday returned his velocity closer to the mid 90s similar to before Tommy John surgery in 2022.
“Maddox pitched his ass off,” Jackson Ross said.
Wes Mendes struck out four of the eight batters faced in two scoreless innings, and Connor Spencer was electric, throwing for the fourth time in eight days. He threw 15 of 17 pitches for strikes for his seventh save.
Ole Miss trailed by a run in the bottom of the eighth when Andrew Fischer started the inning with a 1-2 left-on-left single against Evan Aschenbeck and advanced to third on a throwing error. Ross doubled on a full count, moved to third on a groundout, and Ethan Groff scored him on a sacrifice fly to the left field wall.
“We have the ability to do that but just haven’t done it enough,” Bianco said. “The Fischer at-bat was special against an All-SEC guy. They pitch it so well over there.”
Aschenbeck, even after the two runs in 1.2 innings, has a 2.26 season ERA.
Judd Utermark hit a solo home run in the second inning, and Ross scored Luke Hill with a two-out single in the third inning.
Texas A&M, which is the SEC’s second-best offense and is eighth nationally, went 3-for-13 with runners on base and never had a runner on third base with fewer than two outs. A&M left 10 on base to Ole Miss’ five.
