No. 21 Ole Miss earns walk-off win over Red Wolves; USM nips UNO
OXFORD-- No. 21 Ole Miss rallied from behind with a run in each of the last two innings Wednesday night, keeping its perfect season intact. A Cameron Dishon sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth scored pinch-runner Ray Alejo to lift the Rebels (4-0) to a 4-3 victory over Arkansas State at Swayze Field.
The win over the Red Wolves (2-2) marks the seventh straight Ole Miss victory when the two opponents have faced off against each other.
Sophomore Tate Blackman continued to shine at the plate with his fourth straight multi-hit game. The second baseman reached base all four times he stepped up to the dish, drawing a pair of walks to go along with his two hits. Blackman's two-out single in the bottom of the eighth tied the game and gave Ole Miss life late in the contest.
On the mound, freshman James McArthur saw his first start as an Ole Miss Rebel, and classmate Dallas Woolfolk (1-0) picked up his first career win. Fellow freshman Andy Pagnozzi tossed three innings of relief and posted a career-high five strikeouts. As a pitching staff, the Rebel arms struck out a season-high 12 hitters.
Six Red Wolves recorded one hit apiece for Arkansas State, but three errors in the field led to a trio of Ole Miss runs. Redshirt-senior Cody Jackson gave up two unearned runs over five innings as the ASU starting pitcher.
After rescheduling the first midweek game of the season, Ole Miss stepped onto Swayze Field to take on non-conference foe Arkansas State with McArthur on the mound.
Southern Miss 7, UNO 4: The Golden Eagles banged out 11 hits, the third time in four games to top the 10-hit mark, and got another sterling effort out of the bullpen in a victory over the University of New Orleans at Taylor Park.
"Every win is big, as we all know," Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. "At the end of the season, all those games (are) added up, so our approach this year is take it one game at a time and that's what we're doing."
For the second consecutive game, Southern Miss rallied past an opponent, with a number of clutch moments, including:
Left fielder Chase Scott's first home run of the season, a two-run shot over the scoreboard in left-center field that tied the game in the bottom of the fourth inning after UNO had taken a 3-1 lead in the top of the frame
Catcher Chuckie Robinson's two-out, hot-shot single to left that put Southern Miss ahead for good in the fifth
This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 11:22 PM with the headline "No. 21 Ole Miss earns walk-off win over Red Wolves; USM nips UNO ."