Rebels use five-run inning to hammer Dirtbags and take road series
LONG BEACH | Two identical scenarios came up through five innings on Sunday in Long Beach, and Mike Bianco played both the same way to vastly different results.
In the third inning, with Ole Miss ahead by a run, Ryan Olenek came to the plate with two on and no outs. The call was a sacrifice bunt attempt, and Olenek softly lined it back to Long Beach pitcher Sebastian Sanchez, who threw out the lead runner and ended the threat.
The score and the runners and outs were the same two innings later when Anthony Servideo also squared to bunt. His result was a perfect roller that moved the runners with one out.
The hope for the Rebels was a couple runs would come in on a later hit, but the reality was much more, as Ole Miss added three more hits and two walks in the inning to blow it open with five runs and take the series from Long Beach 12-1 in front of a very respectable Sunday crowd at Blair Field.
“We’ve been so good offensively not because we get so many hits, but we get the timely hit,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “Yesterday we didn’t get that. Today we got the hit to bust it open. It was a lot of guys, and you want to see that.”
The Rebels complete a 3-1 week and return home for a five-game homestand. Long Beach is 0-3 three this season in rubber games and has four more games in a row against the SEC, facing Vanderbilt once and Texas A&M three times in the coming week.
A day after going 2-for-30 with runners on base collectively in two games, Ole Miss put up 11 hits with runners on and seven hits with runners in scoring position. The Rebels added two runs each in the sixth and seventh to add on following the disastrous frame for the Dirtbags.
“We weren’t happy with how we played overall on Saturday, and we wanted to play our game today,” Grae Kessinger said. “We have all the confidence in the world in ourselves and it was important to just have fun.”
Nine different Rebels had hits, with Grae Kessinger reaching base five times with three hits, a double, two runs and two RBIs.
Nick Fortes, Cooper Johnson and Tyler Keenan getting two apiece. Ole Miss built the first eight runs with eight singles and eight Long Beach State walks.
Chase Cockrell hit a pinch hit two-run home run in the seventh once the rout was on. It cleared three different walls in left field, easily leaving the original Blair Field fence that was 348 feet from home plate.
Single runs were added in the final two innings. Tim Rowe, who is still recovering from a hamstring injury, had a pinch hit double in the late innings.
Johnson had a full count two-out single to score Cole Zabowski with the first run that held up until the big fifth. Kessinger, Golsan and Zabowski all had run-scoring hits — the latter two with two outs — during the five-run inning.
“We had guys really bounce back after tough days, and you need that throughout the lineup,” Bianco said. “You won’t get a hit everyday or every at-bat, but you have to get back after it quickly with a clear mind.”