OXFORD — Ole Miss senior shortstop Luke Cheng has admittedly not been much of a home run hitter historically. That made Tuesday night’s moment at Swayze Field even more special.
Cheng, who hit one home run in four years at Illinois State, hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning against Jackson State that put the run-rule into effect in an 18-7 Rebels win.
No. 9 Ole Miss (22-6, 6-3 SEC) drew 18 walks and four hit-by-pitches to go along with 10 hits. The 18 walks were one away from the program record set against High Point last season.
Junior second baseman Judd Utermark hit his team-leading 10th home run in the first inning, a grand slam to dead-center.
Cheng, who has two home runs this season, said he and Utermark have a friendly competition going about who can reach their jersey number in home runs this season first. Cheng wears No. 3 while Utermark wears No. 27.
“That was awesome. I haven’t hit a lot in my career, as I’m sure you guys know, so to hit that one was really cool. I was just trying to follow in Judd’s footsteps,” Cheng said. “We actually have a running kind of thing going, we’re trying to hit our number in home runs. So whoever gets to it first so — I’m one away. He was on pace when he was at nine, and I hit one. So we’ll see what happens there.”
Senior Gunnar Dennis started for the Rebels and pitched three scoreless innings.
Ole Miss’ first three batters reached on Jackson State (16-11, 4-5 SWAC) starter JeAndrick Lourens, bringing Utermark to the plate. Utermark worked the count full and sent the seventh pitch of the at-bat over the wall to unload the bases. The Rebels knocked Lourens out of the game in the first inning after making 50 pitches.
Ole Miss loaded the bases again in the second but were unable increase the lead; the Rebels stranded six runners over the first two innings.
Senior left fielder Mitchell Sanford led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo home run to right. The Rebels scored seven runs in the fifth, with three coming on consecutive bases-loaded walks.
The Tigers scored seven runs in the sixth off freshman Cade Townsend and sophomore Hudson Calhoun, though only two of the runs were earned due to a pair of Ole Miss errors.
Ole Miss added two runs in the sixth and four in the seventh, capped off by Cheng’s game-ending longball. Cheng, who is dealing with an injury, entered the game in the sixth inning to play second base for Utermark. He has primarily played shortstop this year.
“(Cheng’s) been terrific,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “ … We told Cheng, you don’t have to throw it from shortstop, you just have to throw it from second base. But didn’t know he’d be the one walking us off.”
Ole Miss begins a three-game series at Kentucky tonight.
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