COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Brigham Hill scattered four hits in seven innings Thursday night to lead the No. 2 Texas A&M baseball team to a 6-1 victory against No. 6 Ole Miss in Game 1 of a three-game Southeastern Conference series.
Hill (7-1) allowed one run to help Texas A&M (40-12, 19-9 SEC) stay in a first-place tie in the Western Division with Mississippi State, which defeated Arkansas 7-0 on Thursday night in Starkville.
Texas A&M used a five-run sixth inning to break the game open against starting pitcher Brady Bramlett.
Former New Hope High School standout Will Golsan was 2-for-4 to lead Ole Miss (39-15, 17-11). Golsan extended his hitting streak to 12 games. The setback was the first series-opening loss in the past seven SEC series for the Rebels.
Junior Colby Bortles hit his seventh home run of the season, while classmate J.B. Woodman added his 12th double.
Bramlett (7-3) suffered his first loss in seven starts. The redshirt junior allowed four runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings. Freshman Andy Pagnozzi threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings, retiring eight of the 10 batters he faced.
J.B. Moss and Jonathan Moroney led the Aggies with three hits. Moroney and Hunter Melton had two RBIs, while Nick Choruby tallied two hits and two runs.
Ole Miss will look to even the series at 6:30 tonight. Sophomore left-hander David Parkinson will start for the Rebels against sophomore Turner Larkins.
n No. 10 South Carolina 6, Alabama 4: At Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the No. 10 Gamecocks scored two runs in the sixth to erase a rally by the Crimson Tide to win Game 1 of their three-game SEC weekend series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
Alabama (31-22, 15-13) fell behind 4-0 but used a four-run fifth to tie the game.
Senior infielder Marcus Mooney broke the tie with a two-out two-run single in the top of the sixth to help the Gamecocks improve to 40-13 and 18-9 in the SEC.
Right-handers Reed Scott and Tyler Johnson combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief for South Carolina, which has won 40 or more games in 16 of the last 17 seasons.
Scott (4-1) went 2 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out three. Johnson allowed one hit in two innings. He struck out two for his seventh save of the year.
Alabama reliever Ray Castillo (0-2) suffered the loss. He allowed two runs on a hit in 2/3 of an inning.
“I thought we played too poorly in the front part of the game,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “Geoff (Bramblett) wasn’t as sharp as he’s been, and then we certainly didn’t help him much on the defensive end. We basically kind of gave them three runs there where they didn’t have to do a whole lot to get them. The guys responded well on the offensive end, as they came back and scored four. We had an opportunity a couple more times to add to that.”
South Carolina struck first with one run in the second. A leadoff single followed by a double put two in scoring position before a sacrifice fly to center made it a 1-0 game. SC added two more in the fourth, using a two-out error to bring across a pair. The Gamecocks collected one more in the fifth with a leadoff single, a walk, and another single to make it 4-0 entering the bottom of the fifth.
The Crimson Tide tied the game with a four-run frame. Keith Holcombe drew a one-out walk before Cobie Vance brought him around with a two-run home run to left. Georgie Salem was then hit by a pitch and then a Chandler Taylor double moved both runners into scoring position. One out later, Cody Henry came through with the clutch, two-run single to make it a 4-4.
Game 2 will be at 7 tonight (SEC Network+). Alabama is scheduled to start sophomore right-hander Jake Walters, while South Carolina is slated to go with freshman right-hander Braden Webb.
n Florida International 6, No. 13 Southern Miss 5, 10 innings: At Miami, Catcher Zack Soria scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning Thursday to lead the Golden Eagles (26-27, 13-15 C-USA) past the No. 13 Golden Eagles (36-16, 20-8) at the FIU Baseball Stadium.
Southern Miss lost its second extra-inning affair of the year and is tied for the league lead with Marshall, which beat Old Dominion 5-3 on Thursday with two games to play in the regular season.
Southern Miss rallied from a four-run deficit early in the contest to take a late lead in the eighth, but Soria got the Panthers (26-27, 13-15) going in the extra frame with a leadoff triple. After an intentional walk, Golden Eagle closer Nick Sandlin then got a comebacker to get the first out of the frame.
After another intentional walk to Irving Lopez, who led the home squad with three hits and a pair of RBI, Sandlin uncorked the wild pitch as Southern Miss fell for the second time in two tries in extra frames this season.
Sandlin, who didn’t convert on a save opportunity for the fourth of 14 tries this season, fell to 3-3.
Williams Durruthy (2-3) walked one and struck out two in the final two innings.
Game 2 will be at 5:30 tonight.
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