OXFORD — Hunter Simmons’ double to the right-center field gap helped the fourth-seeded Utah baseball team beat top-seeded Ole Miss 6-5 in 10 innings in the Oxford Regional before a crowd of 10,166 at Swayze Field on Friday night.
With the game tied at 5 after nine innings, Ole Miss (43-18) recorded two quick outs in the top of the 10th before Kellen Marruffo singled up the middle. Pinch runner Chandler Anderson moved to second on a passed ball to set the stage for Simmons, who was 3-for-4.
“Nobody wants to get picked off,” said Simmons, who was picked off in the eighth inning. “That was a mistake I made and tried to move on from it. In the 10th, I wasn’t even thinking about it. That was way past my thought process. I was just looking for a good pitch to hit and I got one. I wasn’t worried about getting picked off or even myself. That was long in the past. Just on to the next pitch.”
Josh Rose went 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Andre Jackson had a hit, drove in a run, and walked twice. Kody Davis had a hit and a stolen base to tie the Utah career record for stolen bases with 52.
Ole Miss had two one-out singles in the bottom of the 10th before a fly out and strikeout ended the game.
“Great college baseball game tonight,” said Utah coach Bill Kinneberg, whose team improved to 26-27. “I am extremely proud of our guys in the way they hung in there and battled back in this arena here, which is a great atmosphere for college baseball. I couldn’t be more proud of 27 guys that kept going and pushing and ultimately in the 10th got a big hit and got the win. Hats off to my guys. Great college baseball game. Ole Miss is a terrific team, and I feel very fortunate to have won the ball game tonight.”
Jayson Rose had four strikeouts to bring his season total to 106, a new single-season record at Utah. Rose went six innings and allowed five runs on four hits. He walked four. Riley Ottesen earned the win by giving up one hit and striking out four in three innings. Dylan Drachler, who entered in the 10th, earned his ninth save of the year.
Despite Will Golsan, a former standout at New Hope High School in Columbus, and Holt Perdzock both picking up two hits apiece, the Rebels had only seven hits. A four-run fifth inning propelled Ole Miss to a 5-2 lead, but Utah answered with three runs in the sixth.
“It was one of those great college baseball games. A lot of times you don’t see that with a one versus four, but I think everybody was right. Utah is so good,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “We just couldn’t get the big hit at the end. You have to credit Utah on what a terrific job they did. They got the big pitches and some huge at-bats by those guys.”
Junior Wyatt Short (2-3) was tagged with the loss after giving up an unearned run in the 10th. Ole Miss starter Brady Bramlett threw five innings and surrendered two runs.
Utah scored in the top of the second, but Kyle Watson evened the score in the bottom of the third by blasting a 3-1 pitch over the center-field wall for his second career home run.
The Utes used a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to take a 2-1 lead, but the Rebels found life in the bottom half of the inning. Walks to Ryan Olenek and Watson and a Perdzock single loaded the bases for Errol Robinson, who drew a full-count walk to even the score at two.
“He kept us off-balance for the majority of the game,” Robinson said of Jayson Rose. “I think in our dugout we were trying to figure out how to get baserunners and he just kept us off-balance. It took us a little while to put things together and that’s how the game kind of went. We’d get a runner on and just couldn’t get that big hit to string them together and get those runs to score.”
The Rebels made Rose pay for the free passes. Golsan sent a line drive back up the middle to plate two more runs and give Ole Miss its first lead. The fourth and final run of the frame came in the form of a Tate Blackman groundout that brought in Robinson. The five earned runs allowed by Rose were the second most the right-hander had allowed all season.
The Utes answered with three runs in the sixth after the Rebels went to the bullpen.
Will Stokes worked two scoreless innings in relief, but he gave way to Short after allowing two runners in the eighth. Short picked off Simmons at second before delivering a pitch to end Utah’s threat.
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