John Macon GillespieThe Ole Miss baseball team failed to hold on to a fifth-inning lead on opening day, falling to No. 1 Louisville 7-2 on Friday night.
Doug Nikhazy was credited as the losing pitcher in the contest after giving up four runs in the top of the sixth after the Rebels earned a 1-0 lead in the fifth. The loss on Friday marked Ole Miss’ first Opening Day loss since a 6-5 loss against Louisiana-Monroe in 2010.
“We score some runs, and we’ve got to put up a zero after that,” Nikhazy said. “They smell a little bit of blood in the water, and they put together some really good at-bats, so credit to their offense. I left a couple pitches up, maybe not my best pitches, but I’m going to learn from that and come back better next weekend.”
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco credited Louisville on its performance but admitted that his squad simply was outplayed on Friday night.
“Regardless of the score, they just played better than us,” Bianco said. “When they needed to make pitches, they made them. When they needed to make plays, they made them. When they needed to have good at-bats, they did, and that’s why they’re so good.”
Ole Miss missed opportunities at the plate throughout the night, much to the credit of Louisville starting pitcher Reid Detmers. Detmers allowed one run on three hits through five complete innings and struck out nine Rebels, including a streak of seven-straight early in the game.
“When we had runners on, [Detmers] got better,” Bianco said. “He made pitches and got off the field.”
Ole Miss’ two runs came off the bats of Anthony Servideo in the fifth and Justin Bench in the eighth, but the bats were largely quiet for the rest of the night. Ole Miss did muster six hits in the contest, however, but failed to push runners across when the opportunities came.
For Ole Miss starting pitcher Doug Nikhazy, the game came unraveled in the sixth inning, a frame that saw him surrender four hits and four runs and give Louisville a lead it never relinquished.
When going up against a top-notch arm like Reid Detmers, a scenario that Nikhazy will be faced with often as a Friday night starter in the SEC, Nikhazy’s mindset is focusing on his own performance and trying to stay as competitive as he can.
“The mindset is always control what you can control and just match him,” Nikhazy said. “Keep trying to be the best competitor you can be.”
The Rebels and Cardinals meet at 1:30 p.m. at Swayze Field for game two of the series on Saturday. The Cardinals will throw Bobby Miller who went 7-1 with a 3.83 ERA a season ago. The Rebels will counter with Gunnar Hoglund on the bump who went 3-3 with a 5.29 ERA in his freshman campaign in 2019.
