By Ole Miss Sports

The No. 6 Ole Miss baseball team evened the series against the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers with an 8-5 win Saturday afternoon at Swayze Field. The Rebels were led by starting pitcher Riley Maddox who went five strong innings, striking out five Volunteer hitters.

Tennessee would strike first thanks to a solo shot in the first inning off the bat of Gavin Kilen.

Ole Miss would respond with three runs of their own in the bottom half of inning number one. Luke Hill and Mitchell Sanford would both reach via walks. Hill would swipe second and third base to advance into scoring position. Sanford would follow suit stealing second for the third stolen base of the inning.

Will Furniss would put together a solid at-bat driving in Hill from third with an RBI groundout. One batter later, Ryan Moerman would step to the plate and lace a double down the left field line to score Sanford, making it 2-1, Ole Miss.

Hayden Federico singled up the middle to score Moerman, pushing the Rebel lead to 3-1. In total Ole Miss tallied three runs off two hits, stealing five bases in the first inning.

The Volunteers would make it 3-2, in the second after Levi Clark drove one to dead center for the second Tennessee homer of the game.

Ole Miss would get one back in the bottom half with a solo home run from Austin Fawley to left. It marked Fawley’s second home run in the series and eighth on the season. Ole Miss would lead 4-2, after two.

The Rebels would add one to their lead in the fourth after Hayden Federico stole home. It marked the eighth stolen base of the game by the Rebels and fourth from Federico.

Riley Maddox would settle in on the mound for Ole Miss, putting up scoreless frames in the third, fourth and fifth. Maddox’s line would end after five complete. He surrendered just two runs off three hits, striking out five Tennessee hitters.

Luke Hill lead off the fifth inning with a solo blast to left center. His seventh home run of the season made it 6-2, Ole Miss through five.

Ryne Rodriguez would be first out of the pen for Ole Miss. Tennessee would cut the deficit to 6-4, after Dalton Bargo hit the third Tennessee home run of the game to right center for a two-run shot. Will McCausland entered to relieve Rodriguez with two outs in the sixth and forced a flyout to end the Volunteer threat.

The Rebels evened the inning, finding two runs of their own in the bottom half. Federico drew his second walk of the contest to lead off the inning. Judd Utermark would reach on a throwing error and Austin Fawley delivered his second hit of the game to score Federico.

Isaac Humphrey would rope a single to right to score Utermark, making it 8-4, Rebels after six.

Tennessee would create more traffic loading the bases in the seventh. McCausland would get a ground ball to set up a 5-4-3 double play, as Tennessee plated the runner from third. The Volunteers would get just one as Ole Miss would lead by three after seven.

McCausland would work into the eighth but was relieved after two Volunteers reached base. Connor Spencer entered for Ole Miss and delivered a massive punchout to leave the bases loaded, keeping Tennessee scoreless in the eighth.

Spencer would slam the door in the ninth picking up his third save of the season. Riley Maddox (4-2) would pick up the win for Ole Miss. Marcus Phillips (2-2) suffered the loss for Tennessee.

The Rebels (27-8, 9-5 SEC) and Volunteers (30-5, 9-4 SEC) will play the rubber match of the series Sunday afternoon with first pitch set for 2 p.m. CT on SEC Network.