Dillon CaderThe Ole Miss Baseball team was defeated by Southern Mississippi 10-7 in a neutral site battle on Tuesday at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The loss drops the Rebels’ record to 19-9 on the year after failing to hold on to a late lead against the No. 18 Golden Eagles.
Just couldn’t finish it
After a four-run bottom of the seventh inning gave the Rebels a 7-6 lead, Rebel closer Brandon Johnson was called upon to try and close the game with only five outs to go and a runner on third. Johnson, who had been dominant in closing to this point in the year, was unable to get the job done. A single scored the runner on third, and after two walks, Southern Miss’s Danny Lynch crushed a three run homer to give USM a 10-7 lead that would hold, making for a heartbreaking loss for the Rebels.
Whatever
Ole Miss had a lead in the eighth inning with its go-to pitcher on the mound to close it. If you lose a game like that it sucks, but you just gotta tip your cap. Brandon Johnson has been incredible all year, and if you put him in that situation 10 more times, he’s probably closing out the game in nine of those. Southern Miss is a good team that is really hot right now, and the Rebels will get another chance at them later in the year. A midweek loss to a Top-25 team isn’t a big deal. Hosting a regional or getting a national seed is largely decided by conference record, so going on a run in conference play will make all okay. That being said, the Rebels could really use a sweep at home against Alabama this weekend, so hopefully they put this loss behind them to focus on the Tide.
Defense looked bad
The Rebels, who haven’t been great in the field this year, committed three errors, one of which resulted in a run. The defense has probably been the weakest part of this season. To be fair most other SEC teams are just as bad this year for some reason, but it just hasn’t clicked the way the Rebels hoped it would. It looks like they are just going through some growing pains due to a lack of experience. Jacob Gonzalez, Peyton Chatagnier and Hayden Dunhurst are the only Rebels who play at their natural position every day so it’s going to take some more time before everyone is experienced enough to be fully settled into their spot. In the meantime, the defense has been borderline bad enough to consider it a real problem. Hopefully, they can clean it up or it will bite them in a big spot late in the year.
