HOOVER, Alabama – Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco knows sulking over Tuesday’s outcome isn’t going to change a thing. There is Rebels postseason baseball left to play.
It will just almost certainly come on the road.
After surrendering a five-run fifth-inning lead to the Rebels, 16th-seeded Missouri broke an 8-8 tie with a two-run eighth inning, as the Tigers defeated the ninth-seeded Rebels 10-8 in the first round of the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Sitting firmly on the bubble of hosting an NCAA Tournament regional following a 15-15 regular season in SEC play, the Rebels likely needed to win a few games at the SEC Tournament to get back into hosting contention. Instead the Rebels (36-21) now appear destined for a No. 2 seed when the brackets are revealed on May 25. It will be the program’s second straight NCAA Tournament appearance after missing the previous two.
“Yeah, we’re disappointed. Obviously, nobody wants to come here and lose,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “ … Instead of being miserable, we’ll leave here in a couple of hours and we’ll get back to Oxford and we’ll start to prepare.”
The Rebels trailed 7-2 Tuesday heading to the bottom of the fifth inning following a grand slam from Missouri’s Kaden Peer – part of a five-run fifth that featured just two hits. The Rebels responded with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and, after the Tigers added a run in the sixth, tied the game 8-8 in the seventh on sophomore outfielder Hayden Federico’s two-run home run. Missouri (24-30) retook the lead in the eighth on a single from Blaize Ward and error from senior right fielder Tristan Bissetta and added another run on a Mateo Serna RBI single. The Rebels were retired in order in the ninth.
Ole Miss pitchers walked seven batters, while Rebel batters struck out 14 times. Federico led the Rebels with four RBIs.
“It’s a blessing that we get to keep playing, and we put ourselves in a good position, whether that’s hosting or as a two seed somewhere,” Federico said. “And at the end of the day, this isn’t the end of the world. It’s not the end of the season. Now we just have a longer time for guys to heal up, pitchers to get their arms back right. And we’ll be ready to go wherever we have to go.”
Sophomore starting pitcher Wil Libbert – who played at Missouri prior to this season – surrendered two earned runs over four innings with three strikeouts and three walks.
Junior second baseman Dom Decker led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run, taking the third pitch of his at-bat the opposite way deep into left field. It was his 10th long ball of the year after hitting none last season at Murray State. Junior catcher Austin Fawley went opposite field in the home half of the second, his 13th homer of the year and seventh since May 1. Missouri’s Kam Kurnin tied the game with a two-run home run in the third.
Sophomore JP Robertson entered the game in relief in the fifth and surrendered the go-ahead run on a bloop single down the right-field line to Serna. Robertson walked three batters and left the game with the bases loaded. Peer hit a grand slam off senior Landon Waters on a two-strike count, opening Missouri’s lead up to five. It was his second home run of the season.
Robertson surrendered four earned runs in one-third of an inning.
The Rebels scored four runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, with two coming on a bases-loaded single from Federico and the last on a ground-rule double from sophomore shortstop Owen Paino.
Missouri got a run back in the sixth via a solo home run from Jase Woita, and Federico tied the game with his two-run shot in the seventh. Ward’s single through the right side of the infield was misplayed by Bissetta in the eighth, allowing the runner to score from first. A second Missouri run came in on another shallow single from Serna.
“We’ll get over it,” Bianco said. “But the next time that we do this, you know, you’re in postseason now. … There will be a time you may get one mulligan because it’s double elimination, but you lose and it’s over. For some guys, their baseball lives will be over. They’ll never play again. And certainly this team will never be put together again.
“So the message is to understand the sense of urgency of every pitch, of every play. But even beyond that, in the game of everything that you do, from rest, to what you eat and what you put in your body, what you think about, all those things that affect the baseball game. … When you put your back against a wall, and this could be the finality, I think that sense of urgency rises.”
Ole Miss learns its NCAA Tournament fate next Monday.