HOOVER, Alabama – Although Ole Miss came up devastatingly short on its magic-carpet ride of an SEC Tournament run, the Rebels are feeling awfully good heading into the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in three years.
No. 4 seed Vanderbilt ended No. 7 seed Ole Miss’ tournament run with a 3-2 victory in Sunday’s title game at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Rebels senior center fielder Isaac Humphrey hit a solo home run in the ninth to cut the deficit to one, and two-out walks by sophomore catcher Austin Fawley and freshman right fielder Hayden Federico brought sophomore shortstop Brayden Randle to the plate with the tying run on second. Randle flew out to center to end the game.
Ole Miss (40-19) was 1 for 4 with runners in scoring position in the game.
During their five-day stay in Hoover, the Rebels seemingly locked up their regional hosting bid with wins over No. 15 Florida, No. 5 Arkansas and No. 1 LSU. Ole Miss has not hosted a regional since 2021 and has not been in the NCAA Tournament since winning the College World Series in 2022.
For senior pitcher Hunter Elliott – who was named to the All-Tournament team with senior closer Connor Spencer and junior second baseman Judd Utermark – Ole Miss’ run to the SEC title game wasn’t necessarily a morale boost. As far as he’s concerned, the Rebels have been great for a while.
Ole Miss pitching surrendered six combined runs over four SEC Tournament games.
“I don’t know that I’ve learned a ton (about this team recently). I think other people are kind of starting to see what we already knew. I mean, we’ve known we’re really good for a long time,” Elliott said. “What I guess maybe I’ve learned is that we’re playing really good baseball right now, and that’s a positive this time of year because this is when you want to be playing your best baseball.”
Freshman Walker Hooks made his first start for the Rebels and pitched a career-high four innings with two earned runs allowed. He struck out three batters and did not issue a walk.
Vanderbilt (42-16) got on the board in the bottom of the first inning with a two-out, two-run home run from tournament MVP Brodie Johnston on the first pitch of his at-bat. With Johnston standing on third in the bottom of the fourth, Hooks struck out Colin Barczi and Jonathan Vastine to end the inning.
A walk and hit-by-pitch with two outs in the fifth brought Ole Miss senior left fielder Mitchell Sanford to the plate with a pair of runners on. He promptly singled up the middle on the first pitch he saw to get the Rebels on the board.
Freshman Taylor Rabe entered the game for Ole Miss in the fifth and surrendered a solo home run to Jacob Humphrey. The first three batters of the inning reached on Rabe, but he was able to limit the damage to the lone run. Vanderbilt was hitless in five opportunities with runners in scoring position.
“Today was going to be one of those days where guys we like and guys we trust – but maybe not the headliner names – and it started with Hooks,” Bianco said. “We liked the left-hander against the Vanderbilt team. He pitched well in the game they beat us up (in Oxford). … Beyond that (home run), he was terrific. But I thought Rabe, as Hunter (Elliott) said, and (Hudson) Calhoun were terrific as well.”
Humphrey’s solo home run in the ninth provided a jolt that eventually saw the tying run make its way into scoring position. And, though the Rebels came up short in their quest for the conference crown, they feel good about where things stand heading into regional play.
“We’ve liked our team all year long. We liked our team at the very beginning, and it’s a team that’s played a really consistent year. Not a lot of ups and downs,” Bianco said. “This is a team that, there’s been certain games that we haven’t played well and certain weekends we haven’t played well, but the team hasn’t been swept all year. We’ve been pretty consistent, and (when) we’ve had a bad game or bad weekend, this team has responded. … But (I) feel really good about our club. We’ll get over this. We’ll shower well and we’ll be ready for next weekend.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
