HOOVER, Ala. — Jordan Fowler and Will Ethridge delivered on the mound, and Will Golsan had three hits in the 10-hit attack Saturday to lift the No. 4 and second-seeded Ole Miss baseball team to a 2-1 victory against Texas A&M in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
With the win, Ole Miss (45-15) earned a trip to the championship game of the SEC tournament for the first time since 2008. It will take on eighth-seeded LSU, which edged No. 9 and fourth-seeded Arkansas 2-1, at 2 p.m. Sunday (ESPN2) to see which team will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Fowler, a freshman out of Union City, Tennessee, went a career-high six innings and allowed six hits and no runs. He walked one and struck out three to improve to 7-0.
Ethridge, a sophomore from Lilburn, Georgia, gave up one unearned run on two hits in three innings to earn his third save.
Ole Miss manufactured two runs in the fourth inning, which proved the difference.
Fowler allowed one hit in the first before inducing a tailor-made double play for Grae Kessinger and Jacob Adams to retire the Aggies in order.
A strange turn of events took place in the second after a leadoff single by Cole Zabowski. Golsan smashed a ball deep to left center that appeared to be caught, but the ball popped out of center fielder Zach DeLoach’s glove on the diving attempt. Ultimately, Golsan earned a single but was called out for passing Zabowski on the bases as Zabowski went back to first base, thinking the ball was caught. Tim Rowe grounded into a double play to end an unlucky inning.
In the bottom half of the second, Logan Foster ripped a triple deep into the right center gap, but a hard ground ball to third on the following play allowed Olenek to peg him at the plate and keep the game scoreless.
Ole Miss pushed across the first runs in the fourth. Nick Fortes opened the inning with a single, followed by a double to right field by Thomas Dillard. Zabowski sent Fortes home with an RBI groundout. Golsan’s single to left drove in the game-deciding run.
Fowler fanned two in the bottom half of the fourth and pitched into a 5-4-3 double play turn by Olenek and Adams.
The Rebels had scoring chances in the sixth and seventh after a leadoff single by Fortes and double by Golsan, respectively, but were unable to add to the cushion.
Fowler yielded a leadoff single to start the seventh before giving way to Ethridge out of the bullpen. Ethridge escaped the jam with two groundouts and a fly out, including two excellent plays by Golsan and Adams.
Ole Miss was unable to capitalize on another run-scoring opportunity in the eighth. Ryan Olenek led off with a single, and Fortes was hit by a pitch, but a well-hit ball by Dillard was snagged by the third baseman, leading to a double play.
Texas A&M got on the board with a couple of seeing-eye singles, sandwiched around a fielding error, cut the Rebel lead to one. The Aggies loaded the bases on a walk, but Ethridge escaped the jam with a strikeout.
Ethridge threw eight pitches in the ninth to send the Rebels to the SEC title game.
Golsan had his sixth three-hit game of the season, the second-most by a Rebel behind Ryan Olenek’s seven. He and Fortes have 18 multi-hit games, while Olenek had his 26th.
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