OXFORD — Henri Lartigue’s three-run home run, his second walk-off of the season, lifted the No. 6 Ole Miss baseball team to a 7-5 victory against Kentucky on Saturday evening at Swayze Field.
The Rebels (39-13, 17-10 Southeastern Conference) rallied from a five-run deficit to complete a three-game sweep of the Wildcats (29-23, 13-14).
Ole Miss had 11 hits, including a solo home run by J.B. Woodman, who was 2-for-4 and scored two runs. Tate Blackman went 3-for-5 with one run and one RBI.
The bullpen kept Ole Miss in striking distance, holding Kentucky scoreless for 6 2/3 innings. Redshirt freshman Brady Feigl threw 3 1/3 innings and allowed two hits. Wyatt Short and Will Stokes (1-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings apiece. Stokes retired all five batters he faced and collected his first victory.
“We needed the pitching to get us there, and Stokes was the guy,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “Then we get guys on, moved them around, and Henri just got a good pitch and got some good barrel on it to drive it out of here. Really exciting for him and our team.”
Kentucky had three hitters with two hits apiece in Evan White, Riley Mahan, and Tristan Pompey. Three errors plagued Kentucky and helped Ole Miss scored three runs.
Kyle Cody pitched the first 6 2/3 innings and gave up four runs (one earned) on seven hits. Sean Hjelle (4-1) suffered the loss.
The Rebels trailed 5-1 heading into the fifth before cutting the margin in half with a pair of runs. A passed ball and a single up the middle brought two Rebels across the dish to make it 5-3.
Ole Miss made it a one-run game in the bottom half of the seventh inning. Ryan Olenek singled to center field before advancing to second base on a wild pitch. Left-hander Logan Salow took over on the mound with out. Woodman reached first on a throwing error by the second baseman. Olenek kept chugging around the bases and scored the unearned run to slice the deficit to 5-4.
Stokes entered in the eighth with runners on first and second and one out. The sophomore forced a fly out and got the batter swinging for the final out of the eighth inning to leave the top half scoreless.
In Kentucky’s final chance at the plate, Stokes again kept the Wildcats off the board with a fly out and two strikeouts.
After leaving two runners in scoring position with one out in the previous inning, the Rebels fought back in the ninth. With one out, Blackman roped double to the right-center gap and then advanced to third on the passed ball with Woodman at the plate. Woodman worked the pitcher to a walk to put runners on the corners for Lartigue. In the ultimate pressure situation, the Rebels’ catcher lined a three-run bomb to right field as the dugout stormed onto the field to celebrate the 7-5 walk-off victory and another SEC sweep.
n On Friday, Errol Robinson was 5-for-6 with four runs scored and three RBIs, and Woodman, Colby Bortles, and Will Golsan had three hits to lead Ole Miss to a 14-2 victory against Kentucky before a crowd of 9,142 that secured a new regular-season total attendance record at Swayze Field.
Ole Miss pounded a season-high 21 hits against four pitchers, including 14 against starter Dustin Beggs. Each Ole Miss starter had at least one hit. The Rebels also had back-to-back homers for the third time this season.
Robinson had new career highs in hits and runs. Five other Rebels also earned multi-hit games. Blackman and Woodman had home runs. Blackman was 2-for-4 with a career-high four RBIs, while Woodman had three RBIs. Bortles and Golsan, who had a double and a triple, scored two runs.
Left-handed pitcher David Parkinson (4-2) allowed five hits in six innings to get the victory. He struck out a career-high six. Freshman Andy Pagnozzi allowed three hits and one run to earn his first career save.
Connor Cloyd, Matt Denny, Cameron Dishon and Holt Perdzock honored before the game.
Ole Miss will play at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Arkansas State. It then will travel to College Station, Texas, to prepare for a three-game series against Texas A&M. The series will begin Thursday night.
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