Ole Miss used the Georgia plan against Texas A&M on Thursday.

A day after Georgia didn’t have a hit until the eighth against the Aggies but used a ninth-inning home run to beat A&M, the Rebels didn’t have a hit through eight innings but used a brilliant Doug Nikhazy and a final at-bat double from Cole Zabowski to stay alive at the SEC Tournament.

Ole Miss survives, 1-0, and sends Texas A&M home. The. Rebels will face the Arkansas-Georgia loser at 3 p.m. on Friday. The winner advances to the Saturday single-elimination semifinals.

Nikhazy matched zeroes with Aggies starter John Doxakis for eight innings. The freshman was brilliant, working in his fastball and multiple breaking balls over the course of 107 pitches and 72 strikes.

“That’s the furtherest in a game my entire life,” Nikhazy said. “I never even threw a compete game in high school. Just going that deep is a huge deal.

“I like to lead by example. I get on the mound and make sure I tell my team I’m going to shut it down so they can relax and get hits.”

Nikhazy used the changeup later in his start and struck out two around four walks and gave up only three hits. It’s his seventh win of the season and an excellent primer prior to his NCAA Regional start next week.

The Florida native held the Aggies to 1-for-9 with runners on base and won all four at-bats with runners in scoring position.

The near-perfection was necessary, as Doxakis’ day ended only because of pitch count. The A&M ace walked four and hit a batter for the only runners in eight innings. He struck out 10 and exited the tie game after 99 pitches.

Thomas Dillard started the ninth with a two-strike single against reliever Bryce Miller, and after two outs, Zabowski stayed down on a second-pitch breaking ball, driving it into the right field corner for the winning double.

“We were fighting the whole game but when he came out we thought we might be able to take advantage of whomever came in,” Zabowski said.

Zabowski was sitting fastball but stayed back to finally break the tie. Dillard had moved to second base on a balk, and Zabowski’s hit broke an 0-for-11 streak with runners on base.

Parker Caracci got his ninth save as he worked around a one-out double. The fastball maxed at 93 MPH, and Caracci ended the game with a strikeout for his best outing in recent weeks.

Texas A&M got a runner to third in the eighth, but Nikhazy worked a ground out from former Ole Miss infielder Bryce Blaum to end the inning. The Rebels intentionally walked Braden Shewmake to get to Blaum.

Ole Miss’ RPI ranking is up to No. 25 following the win. Georgia and Arkansas have RPI rankings of No. 3 and No. 6, respectively.