Ole Miss Baseball Beats Alabama, 6-0

Mississippi pitchers Bobby Wahl and Aaron Greenwood combined on a two-hit shutout to lead the No. 18 Rebels to a 6-0 Southeastern Conference win over the No. 22 Alabama Crimson Tide on Friday night from Swayze Field. With the loss, Alabama falls 22-14 overall and 8-5 in SEC play. The Rebels improve to 24-10

“We didn’t play very well in all phases of the game,” Alabama head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “Charley Sullivan had his worst outing of the year and he just couldn’t find a secondary pitch. Offensively, Wahl is good and he’s a proven guy in this league, but we had opportunities tonight. When we had those opportunities we didn’t have good at-bats. I was disappointed in our energy tonight. I thought we would have been feistier and got after it a lot more than we did.”

Although Alabama only had two hits in the game, the Tide had runners on base throughout the game. UA left a total of nine runners on base, including two in scoring position in the fourth, and left the bases loaded in the sixth. The Tide drew five walks and had one hit batter, and had a batter reach on an error.

Rebels’ starting pitcher Bobby Wahl improved to 7-0 on the season after limiting the Tide to one hit while walking five and striking out threw in six innings. Aaron Greenwood threw the final three innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit with three strikeouts to complete the shutout, to record his second save of the year.

Alabama starting pitcher Charley Sullivan (3-3) took the loss after his shortest outing as a starter for the Crimson Tide. Sullivan lasted just three innings, allowing four runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts. Taylor Guilbeau took over for Sullivan in the fourth inning, and threw 4.2 innings, allowing one run with two walks and three strikeouts, to keep the Tide within striking distance the rest of the way.

The two hits for the Tide came from Kyle Overstreet, a double in the fourth off Wahl, and Mikey White, a single in the ninth off Greenwood.

Offensively for Mississippi, designated hitter Will Allen was 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Stuart Turner was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, an RBI and two runs scored.

Mississippi jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Turner doubled inside the third base bag with two outs to score Auston Bousfield, who was hit by a pitch, from second base. The Rebels used a pair of doubles in the second inning to extend their lead to 2-0. Allen doubled to open the inning then scored when Tanner Mathis doubled to left center with two outs off Sullivan.

The Rebels added two more runs in the third, getting the first run on an RBI single by Sikes Orvis. Then with runners on the corners, Orvis was caught stealing but Andrew Mistone scored from third as Orvis was tagged out after getting into a run down between first and second. The two-run third inning for Mississippi ended the night for Sullivan, as he did not return for the fourth inning.

Alabama tried to answer in the fourth after Brett Booth walked and Overstreet doubled with one out to put runners in second and third. Austen Smith’s liner was snagged by Wahl for the second out then Cameron Carlisle struck out to end the inning. The Tide loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but Smith and Carlisle popped out to end the inning without any runs against Wahl.

The Rebels added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when Allen homered to left field on the second pitch that he saw from reliever Keaton Haack, to cap the scoring in the game at 6-0.

Alabama and Mississippi will play game two of the three-game SEC series on Saturday with first pitch at 4 p.m. CST from Swayze Field. UA is scheduled to start LHP Justin Kamplain (0-0, 4.34) and the Rebels will throw RHP Mike Mayers (2-4, 3.20). The game can be heard locally on 95.3 WFFN-FM.

(Courtesy Alabama Media Relations)