OXFORD — Senior outfielder Matt Smith returned to the lineup Tuesday night just 12 days after surgery for a broken hand and went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored to help the University of Mississippi baseball team beat Southeast Missouri State 10-6.
Smith moved into a tie with former outfielder Logan Power for most RBI all-time at Ole Miss with 183. He also was one of four Rebels with multiple hits, as Ole Miss (29-23) had 14 hits. Miles Hamblin and Matt Snyder both tallied home runs to power the Rebels.
Trent Rothlin (3-0) picked up the win in relief. He entered the game to start the fourth inning and working three scoreless innings, allowing four hits and striking out four.
Josh Syberg (2-2) suffered the loss. He allowed four unearned runs on six hits with three walks. A dropped foul ball with two outs in the fourth caused all of the runs to be unearned.
“It was a good game, especially offensively,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “We swung that bat well. Matt Smith was tremendous tonight. When I said he would be one of the greatest players to play here, I meant it. To do what he has done here from coming back and playing a week after hurting his arm as a freshman to coming back 12 days after surgery for a broken hand this week. He”s remarkable.
“I was proud of our pitchers tonight. We have an early Thursday game again this week and we needed some guys who haven”t pitched a ton to step up tonight. They did that.”
The Redhawks scored first, pushing three runs across the plate in the third to take the early lead. A single and a double put two men on before the first run crossed the plate on a fielding error at second on a ground ball from Trenton Moses. Southeast Missouri State then used a double and a sacrifice fly to push two more runs home and move out to the 3-0 lead.
Ole Miss answered in the bottom of the inning, starting things with a walk of Alex Yarbrough and a single from Smith to put two men on base. A groundout to third moved both players into scoring position with two outs. A dropped foul ball on what would have been the final out of the inning gave Will Allen extended life. A wild pitch to Allen scored Yarbrough and moved Smith to third before Allen doubled to left that scored Smith. Hamblin followed with a two-run home run to right field to put the Rebels in the lead 4-3.
The Rebels extended the lead in the fourth with a two-run single by Smith that scored Tanner Mathis and Yarbrough before adding to that lead to 7-3 in the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Blake Newalu.
Ole Miss moved out in front 10-3 in the eighth. Yarbrough reached on a fielding error at second before taking second on a wild pitch. He then scored on a single from Smith. Snyder then belted out his two-run shot to right field to give the Rebels the seven-run lead.
Ole Miss will return to action this weekend when it plays at Arkansas. Ole Miss and Arkansas will face off in game one of the series at 6:35 Thursday night at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark.
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