It took nearly five hours of baseball and fourteen innings of play for the No. 18 Ole Miss Rebels to finish off the No. 22 Arizona State Sun Devils, 7-6.
Brayden Randle slapped a single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 14th for the win. Luke Romine scored the winning run after being subbed in defensively for Will Furniss late in the game. I did not have those two names being a huge part of this win on my bingo card, and that is baseball for you especially in the postseason.
What fans did expect was home runs from Judd Utermark and Tristan Bissetta with the latter hitting a ball more than 430 feet into right field. Hudson Calhoun and Walker Hooks were dominant for the most part in relief of Hunter Elliott who had an uneven start.
Some good news, bad news on the pitching front. Yes, the Rebels got the win but used up two of its best quality arms in the bullpen in the process. Can Calhoun or Hooks be used at any point again in this regional? That is left to be seen. There is still plenty of arms at the ready while only using three pitchers in an extra inning game, but the stress on starting pitching to go 5+ will be higher than normal.
It goes without saying winning the first game of the regional is incredibly important, but moreso is today’s game against host Nebraska for a place in the regional final. Taylor Rabe will be taking the mound for Ole Miss with a first pitch set for 7 p.m. CT and should be broadcast on ESPNU.
