HOOVER, Ala. — Tracking down balls in the outfield gaps and knocking in three runs, All-Southeastern Conference outfielder J.B. Woodman led the No. 7 seed Ole Miss baseball team to a 5-1 victory against Georgia in the first round of the SEC tournament on Tuesday afternoon at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
“I thought we played well today,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “The Tuesday game — it’s that elimination day where there is pressure on you to play well or you go home. Sometimes it goes as scripted, and today it did. We decided during the rain delay at Texas A&M that we would play that Tuesday game and that Brady would get the ball. I just said ‘can you hold them at bay until we can score some runs? You don’t have to go six or seven, just give us three or four innings.’ He did that and let the bullpen take over. I learned a long time ago from my mentor Skip Bertman, baseball is about dominant pitching. That’s the most important thing. The second most important thing is the timely hit. We had both of those today. It was nice to get off to a good start.”
Woodman hit a two-run, added an RBI double and made a season-high seven catches in center field to help the Rebels (41-16) advance to the double elimination portion of the tournament. He went 2-for-3 with three RBIs for his team-leading 23rd multi-hit and 14th multi-RBI game of the year.
“It’s fantastic. He had two great plays behind me today,” Ole Miss starting pitcher Brady Bramlett said of Woodman. “Luckily this place plays like a graveyard. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like that for me in the first inning. It’s great to know he is behind you. What’s even better is having him at the plate as well. When he is at the plate he’s going to give you a quality at-bat for our team and put the ball in play.”
Colby Bortles added a big two-run double, his 18th of the season, as part of a four-run fourth inning. Tate Blackman increased his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games, while Will Golsan and Ryan Olenek had singles.
Working on a pitch count around 60, Bramlett (8-3) allowed just one run on three hits in four innings to collect the win. He faced the minimum over his final three innings before nearing his pitch limit. Redshirt freshman Brady Feigl threw three innings without allowing a run before Will Stokes and Wyatt Short pitched one scoreless inning apiece.
“It felt great today. Granted, it was a short rest, but my body felt good,” Bramlett said. “Regardless of how I feel, I’m going to go out there and compete regardless. Coach (Bianco) said ‘I don’t care if it’s two innings, three innings or four innings, can you go out there and throw up some zeroes for us?’ That was the mindset going in. The mind-set is always going to be giving your team the best chance to win. After the home run, the mindset was to make the big pitch and get off the field. I tip my hat to Georgia. They are a great ball club. They are a great swinging ball club. They made it tough. The mindset was to make a pitch, get off the field and throw up some more zeroes for us so we could have a chance to win.”
Heath Holder (4-5) suffered the loss for Georgia (27-30). After limiting the Rebels to one run in seven innings on May 8, Ole Miss recorded four runs off Holder in 3 2/3 innings Tuesday. The Bulldogs had seven hits, including two by designated hitter Daniel Nichols.
After Bramlett retired the first two batters of the game, Stephen Wrenn homered to left field to give Georgia the first run of the game. The Bulldogs loaded the bases to try and keep the two-out rally going; however, Bramlett settled down to get out of the jam and leave three Bulldogs on base.
The Rebels batted around in the fourth, sending 10 hitters to the plate. With the help of two extra-base hits, Ole Miss scored four runs in the big inning to take control. Golsan drew a one-out walk before Blackman’s blooper to center put two runners on base for Woodman. Hitting over .400 with runners in scoring position throughout the regular season, the junior center fielder came through in the clutch once again with a triple to right field that scored a pair of Rebels. Henri Lartigue reached base after being hit by a pitch, and the Ole Miss catcher stole his first base of the season to get into scoring position. A Bortles double brought both Woodman and Lartigue across the plate to give Ole Miss a 4-1 lead.
One inning later, Woodman recorded this third RBI of the game with an opposite-field double to left-center. Golsan motored around to score his second run of the contest, increasing the Rebels’ advantage to four runs, 5-1.
Feigl made sure the Rebels held their lead, tossing three scoreless innings with the help of three strikeouts. In the final two innings of play, Stokes and Short kept Georgia off the scoreboard as the Ole Miss bullpen closed out the 5-1 first round win.
Ole Miss will face No. 2 seed South Carolina at approximately 1 p.m. today (SEC Network).
n Alabama 5, Kentucky 2: Starting pitcher Nick Eicholtz threw 6 2/3 solid innings Tuesday to lead the No. 9 seed Crimson Tide to a victory against the No. 8 seed Wildcats in an elimination game on the opening day of the SEC tournament.
Alabama (32-24) improved its chances of making the NCAA tournament with the win against Kentucky (32-25). Both teams entered the tournament with 15-15 records in the league in the regular season.
“I’m really proud of our team today,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “It was a real pressure-packed game with a lot on the line. When you have a game like that, it’s really helpful to get a great start on the mound. I thought Nick (Eicholtz) did a great job. He was able to hand it to the bullpen with (Matt) Foster and (Thomas) Burrows, who I thought also pitched well. It was nice to get an early lead, and take advantage of some Kentucky mistakes.”
Eicholtz (4-3) picked up his fourth win of the season and his second over the Wildcats in 2016, throwing 6.2 innings and allowing two runs on three hits with a pair of walks and three strikeouts. Eicholtz began the game hot, retiring the first nine hitters he faced, before giving up a solo home run to break the streak. The junior limited UK in the middle innings, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh. Reliever Matt Foster followed the Tide starter, and came in to record a groundout to first to end any threat.
Foster went on to record the first two outs of the eighth before a fielding error allowed one to reach and ended his night. Alabama turned the ball over to its closer, Thomas Burrows, who recorded the final out of the eighth and then sat the Wildcats down in order in the ninth to record his career-high 12th save of the season.
Will Haynie and Hunter Webb, were 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Haynie had his team-high 10th home run and scored two runs.
“He was blowing up the radar gun,” Haynie said of his home run. “He had a little run going on the right. Coach Phillips (Andy) pulled me aside and told me to back off the plate a little bit. I was fortunate to get a good hit with a good spin on it.”
The Crimson Tide struck first in the game, bringing across three runs in the top of the second. Haynie singled and was followed by a base hit from Cody Henry to give Alabama a pair of baserunners for Chance Vincent. The senior grounded up the middle but a fielding error allowed all three runners to remain on base, loading them for Daniel Cucjen, who would draw a walk to score the game’s first run. Webb followed with a two-run single to center to make it 3-0.
Eicholtz cruised through the first three frames before Kentucky hit a solo home run to start off the bottom of the fourth that made it 3-1. The teams went scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, when Kentucky used a one-out walk, a stolen base, and a two-out double to make it 3-2.
Burrows recorded a strikeout in the eighth to help Alabama escape danger.
The Crimson Tide added to its lead in the ninth thanks to Haynie’s two-run home run that scored Chandler Taylor, who drew a two-out walk.
“That’s the difference in winning and losing,” Gaspard said of key hits. “You have to take advantage. That has kind of been our key. If we get four or five runs we have the opportunity to win games.”
Burrows worked a perfect ninth to secure the save.
n LSU 5, Tennessee 4: the No. 5 seed Tigers closed the day in dramatic fashion, rallying for a walk-off win against No. 12 seed Volunteers.
LSU (40-17) overcame a 4-0 deficit and scored two runs in the ninth to eliminate Tennessee (29-28) from the tournament. A solo home run by LSU’s Greg Deichmann tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. Kramer Robertson delivered the game-winning hit, a single that scored Brennan Breaux.
“When I came up to bat there, I knew after Greg (Deichmann) had hit the home run, I was telling everybody that we wanted to win it this inning because they had some of their big bats coming up,” Robertson said. “I really wanted to make sure we won it there in the bottom of the ninth. Credit all of those guys in front of me for winning their at-bats and getting it to me. All I had to do was put a ball in play out of the infield and was fortunate to do it.”
Tennessee took a 1-0 lead on Jordan Rodgers’ two-out single. It added to the lead on an RBI single by Max Bartlett in the fifth.
The Volunteers kept the Tigers off the board in the fifth with back-to-back plays at the plate to end the frame. LSU’s Deichmann and Beau Jordan were tagged out at home by catcher Tyler Schultz on throws from Rodgers and Brodie Leftridge.
Tennessee extended its lead in the sixth on an RBI groundout by Vincent Jackson. Nick Senzel then scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
In the seventh, Deichmann delivered an RBI double. The Tigers added another run on a single by Cole Freeman. Robertson’s bases-loaded two-out hit scored one run, but Schultz made another tag at the plate to end the inning and keep LSU from tying the game.
Hunter Newman (1-0), the last of six pitchers used by LSU, earned the win after tossing perfect frames in the eighth and ninth.
“The real key was Hunter Newman’s performance coming out of the pen,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “He kept us right there after we got the three-spot and had the guy thrown out at the plate with a chance to tie the game. Hunter dominated his two innings and gave us a chance to rally there in the ninth inning.”
LSU will play No. 4 seed Florida in the final game of the day today. It will start approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Mississippi State-Alabama game, which will start at 4:30 p.m.
n Vanderbilt 7, Missouri 0: Freshman Patrick Raby’s commanding performance led the No. 6 seed Commodores past the No. 11 seed Tigers in the opening game of the day.
Vanderbilt (42-15) will take on No. 3 seed Texas A&M at 9:30 a.m. today. The Commodores have won five in a row. They are 14-0 against Missouri all time.
Raby (7-1) struck out four and held Missouri (26-30) to two hits in a 99-pitch outing in six innings.
“His volume was low coming into this game so he drew the assignment,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin. “When you’re pitching against a guy like (Tanner) Houck you know that the game’s going to be very tight, so you have to contain the game.”
Houck gave up three hits and struck out six in five innings, but Bryan Reynolds’ two-run RBI double in the sixth helped get Vanderbilt started.
“It was just a slider that kind of left up a little bit,” Reynolds said. “It was just a good pitch to hit so I just went after it. I wanted to get it out of there as fast as I could.”
Reynolds and third baseman Will Toffey then scored on back-to-back fielding errors.
Vanderbilt extended its lead in the bottom of the eighth on pinch hitter’s Julian Infante two-run home run. Toffey scored four batters later on a Kyle Smith single.
Special Reports were included in this story.
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