Ole Miss baseball wins against Southern Miss

Published 9:19 am Wednesday, February 26, 2025

After Rebel starter Will McCausland took care of the Golden Eagles in the top of the first inning, Ole Miss got things going in the bottom of the frame. Judd Utermark singled to left with the bases loaded, scoring Hayden Federico and Luke Hill, both of whom had reached on walks. After Will Furniss walked, Southern Miss changed pitchers, and reliever Matthew Adams came in for the starter, McCarty English.

The bases were loaded and another Rebel scored with a walk as runners advanced on a base on balls by Austin Fawley. Owen Paino grounded out but the Rebs led 3-0 after an inning.

It would signal quite a bit of scoring ahead. The Golden Eagles put up a run in the second and a run in the third before Ole Miss had a big bottom of the third.

The third Southern Miss pitcher of the game, Micah Wascom, started the inning and immediately hit Utermark. He wound up at second on a throwing error on a pickoff play. Furniss singled to score Utermark, followed by a Fawley home run to left that made it 6-2 Rebels.

After the Golden Eagles cut the Rebel lead to 6-5, Ole Miss went back to work for more runs. Ryan Moerman’s one-out double got things rolling in the bottom of the fourth, and when the third out was recorded Ole Miss was up 8-5.

After Southern Miss made it 8-6 in the top of the fifth, a Sanford double scored Hill and Humphrey, who had each reached on a walk. It was 10-6 after five.

Tucker Stockman led off with a solo homer in the sixth for Southern Miss, but Ole Miss bounced back with a run of its own in the bottom of the sixth – in the same manner. Owen Paino sent a leadoff solo shot out of the park, his first round-tripper as a Rebel, and Ole Miss led 11-7 through six.

The Golden Eagles added a solo home run with two outs in the eighth off Rebel reliever Walker Hooks to make it 11-8.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Rebels added four runs, the big moments a two-run homer by Moerman and a solo shot from Sanford.

Brayden Jones (1-0), the fourth of six pitchers for Ole Miss, was the winner. Southern Miss used eight pitchers, and starter English (0-1) suffered the loss.

Stockman and Davis Gillespie had three hits each for the Golden Eagles.

Sanford and Moerman had two hits each, while eight other Rebels each had one hit – Federico, Hill, Humphrey, Utermark, Furniss, Fawley, Paino, and Brayden Randle. Fawley had four RBI in the game.

Ole Miss hosts Wright State (3-3) this weekend, with a 4 p.m. Friday game the first of three contests between the Rebels and the Raiders.