OXFORD, Miss. – Mizzou Baseball dropped the series finale at Ole Miss, 9-6, on a chilly Sunday afternoon (April 23) at Swayze Field. Ole Miss scored three runs in the first, one in the third and five more in the fourth to put the game away. The big hit came from 3B Colby Bortles, a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning. That was part of a six-hit, five-run inning that put the game away. Mizzou made things interesting late, but couldn't overcome the 9-1 deficit.
Mizzou RHP Bryce Montes De Oca (Lawrence, Kan.) took the loss, falling to 3-3 on the year while Ole Miss' Houston Roth earned the win to improve to 2-0 on the year. Mizzou falls to 27-14 and 8-10 in SEC play while Ole Miss goes to 25-15 and 9-9 in league games.
Walks haunted Montes De Oca in the first inning as he issued free passes to the first two batters he faced. Leadoff man Tate Blackman came around to score on a sacrifice fly by CF Ryan Olenek. Ole Miss 1B Nick Fortes then hit a two-out double to score a run and the Rebels tacked on another on a wild pitch to take a 3-0 lead after one.
Mizzou got a tough break in the top of the second inning as Chris Cornelius (St. Louis, Mo.) appeared to put Mizzou on the board with a single into right center. But Robbie Glendinning (Scarborough, Australia) was gunned down trying to go first-to-third before Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) could cross home plate, costing Mizzou a run. The call was confirmed after a lengthy review by the umpire crew.
Ole Miss tacked on another run thanks to a leadoff error by Alex Samples (Bridgeport, Texas) in the second inning. Glendinning almost made a tremendous play on a grounder up the middle, but the throw skipped into first base and Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) couldn't pick it, allowing the runner, who reached on the Samples error, to score. That gave Ole Miss a 4-0 lead.
Cornelius tallied another clutch hit in the top of the fourth, roping a two-out double off the wall in right field to score Glendinning, who doubled with one out in the inning. That got Mizzou on the board. But just as quickly as Mizzou got back in the game, Bortles lifted a three-run homer off of Mizzou reliever Michael Plassmeyer (St. Louis, Mo.) to extend the lead to 7-1. Ole Miss tacked on two more runs in the inning to take a 9-1 lead.
Mizzou responded with three runs in the top of the fifth inning, one on a Samples single and two more on Glendinning's second double of the game. The Tigers looked to get more in the sixth inning as Cornelius roped his second double and third hit of the game to leadoff the frame. Kameron Misner (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) then laid down a bunt single to put runners on the corners with no outs. But Misner was caught stealing and the next two batters were retired to end the threat.
The Tigers added two more runs in the top of the eighth on a Cornelius sacrifice fly and another on an error. Pinch hitter Nelson Mompierre (Miami, Fla.) sent a ball deep into right center with a runner on, but it was hauled in near the track to send the game to the ninth with the Rebels on top, 9-6. Mizzou then went 1-2-3 in the ninth to give Ole Miss the series.
Mizzou head to Missouri State Tuesday night for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch. For all the latest on all things Mizzou Baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team @MizzouBaseball and like the team on Facebook and Instagram (Missouri Baseball).
Potent Quotables
Head Coach Steve Bieser
Opening statement…
"Just a tough game. Tough to swallow. Felt like Bryce would settle in eventually and never really quite found it there. Plass makes a bad pitch, a mistake to Bortles, and that was kind of the difference in the game. Not being able to execute a pitch there. It was kind of a miscommunication there on our part on signaling the proper pitch in, so no blame on our players. Somehow we didn't get the right pitch in in the right sequence and we got burned on a three-run homer."
Postgame Notes
- Ole Miss now leads the all-time series with Mizzou, 10-8.
- Mizzou falls to 5-4 on Sundays this season and 1-3 in rubber games during SEC play.
- Mizzou is now 14-10 in three-game series this season.
- Mizzou is now 8-10 in SEC play and 5-4 against SEC West teams. Mizzou is also 6-3 on the road in SEC play and lost its first SEC road series this season.
- Mizzou falls to 9-3 when facing a left-handed starting pitcher.
- Freshman SS Chris Cornelius tallied his second career three-hit game on Sunday, roping a career-high two doubles.
- Junior OF Trey Harris tallied his 10th multi-hit game of the season.
- Junior INF Robbie Glendinning tallied his first two-double game since Feb. 26 against Illinois. It was his second multi-hit game of the week and 12th of the season, third-most on the team.
- Glendinning tallied his fourth multi-RBI game of the year.
- Freshman LHP T.J. Sikkema now has nine appearances with four or more strikeouts. Of his 15 appearances, he has now allowed zero earned runs in 11 of them.
