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Ryan Rolison shows ace toughness in Ole Miss win over Alabama

It was fight or flight time for Ryan Rolison in the fourth inning on Thursday.

Two walks sandwiched a single, and Alabama loaded the bases with no outs. Ole Miss led by a run, but offensive opportunities seemed minimal, and the Rebels had lost three straight road series, creating a bit of a haze over baseball away from Swayze Field.

Rolison got a five-pitch strikeout for the first out, but an error on second baseman Anthony Servideo tied the game and left them loaded with the one down. A Tide hit would give a bad team confidence and more loose pitches would gift runs on a day when they were at a premium.

But instead of the negatives, Rolison quickly picked up another punch out and got ahead to the next batter, forcing a lazy fly out to end the frame with the score tied. The ace fought through two more frames without allowing a run and threw 71 strikes in 111 pitches in six innings.

The two hits given up, including a bloop single, and five walks led to the damage, but he made the most of high-leverage pitches and hung around the way aces have to with postseason positioning on the line.

Ole Miss knocked off Alabama, 3-2, in Tuscaloosa, moving the Rebels to 41-13 overall and 17-11 in the Southeastern Conference. Ole Miss has won five straight league games and set the school record for total wins in the regular season. The Rebels remain one game behind Arkansas in the SEC West but is alone with the third best conference record in the SEC.

The Rebels can guarantee a first round bye in the SEC Tournament with another win or a South Carolina loss on Friday or Saturday. Arkansas sweeping Georgia would also achieve the top four seed.

Ole Miss and Florida are tied for the best overall record in the SEC. The Gators have clinched the SEC regular season title and are 20-8 in the league.

Will Ethridge and Parker Caracci pitched one inning and two innings of perfect bullpen baseball in place of Rolison. Alabama didn't have a base runner past the sixth inning. The 16 pitches for Ethridge and 23 for Caracci were low stress and should help them return to the series either of the next two days.

Thomas Dillard, Tyler Keenan and Will Golsan all had two hits. Cole Zabowski hit a solo home run, and Golsan and Chase Cockrell had RBI singles. Golsan hit a sixth-inning slow chopper in the six-hole, and the throw across pulled the Alabama third baseman off the bag to extend the inning and allow the winning run to score.

Umpires reviewed and upheld the call.

Ole Miss moved up to No. 7 in the RPI following the win, though there’s the chance for fluctuation the next two days. Teams are tightly bundled from 6-10 in the computer formula, and Alabama’s low ranking is a detriment should the Crimson Tide win a game or definitely two in the series.

The Rebels were a consensus national seed in this week’s media projections, and Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill believes Ole Miss can lock up a top-eight NCAA Tournament seed with a series win against Alabama without having to win a game in Hoover.

Twenty conference wins counting the SEC Tournament has been the precedent for SEC teams, as all but one national seed since 2002 achieved that number, and the one exception — 2012 South Carolina — won 19 games with a rainout.

Brady Feigl, fresh off his dominant outing against Auburn, will try to cure his road woes and clinch the series for the Rebels. Alabama (26-28, 7-21) is going with senior Jake Walters, who threw a 7-inning shutout against Ole Miss two years ago.

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