For the sixth consecutive week, the Rebels fell on Sunday. This time, it was not due to a lack of pitching, fielding, nor poor base running. The Rebel bats just could not get anything going against Georgia's atrocious pitching. A weekend recap is after the jump.
RPI...Falling every Sunday since 2001
Going....Drew Pomeranz pitched a gem on Friday, going 8.0 innings and only allowing one run on four hits with 15 strikeouts and three walks. Brett Huber entered in the ninth and closed things out for the Rebels. Justin Grimm pitched well for Georgia, but he got the loss by allowing two runs. Offensively, Kevin Mort's home-run--the second of his collegiate career--put the Rebels ahead for good in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Zach Miller singled and stole second, later scoring on a single from Alex Yarbrough. Two batters later, Kevin Mort drove Yarbrough in to get his second RBI. That provided the final run in a 4-1 victory.
Going...Aaron Barrett matched Pom's performance by dominating Georgia's line-up for 7.1 innings and struck out ten. The Ole Miss offense could only muster one run for the first 12 innings. Tim Ferguson broke out of his 0-for-9 slump at that point in the series, getting a hit to lead off the inning. Then, Taylor Hashman, who was a defensive substitute, came up big with a homerun to give the Rebels a 3-1 lead. With Matt Smith at third and Alex Yarbrough at first, Mort doubled to right field to give the Rebels the deciding run once again. Smith scored easily, but Yarbrough was thrown out at the plate. Georgia would put together two runs in the bottom of the thirteenth, but Trent Rothlin finished them off for the save. Eric Callender would get the win.
The RPI is hit long, deep, at the wall, GONE! David Goforth provided a decent outing by allowed four runs (three earned) in 5.1 innings of work. That should be enough to get the win by a Sunday starter, but the bullpen allowed two more runs for the 6-3 loss. The Rebels gave a valiant effort, but the offense was not good enough. I would claim that we tried offensively, but two runs against a starting pitcher who has an 8+ era is terrible. The bullpen is not any better, and we still could not do anything to stop the bleeding when it mattered.
Fun with numbers:
- Zach Miller is tearing it up in SEC play with a .400 average, and Kevin Mort is close behind with a .370 average.
- Matt Smith's hit streak has now reached seventeen games. He has a .353 average in conference play.
- Drew Pomeranz struck out 15 and Aaron Barrett struck out 10. They lead the SEC with 80 and 63 strikeouts respectively. They are both very, very good.
- Only four players are hitting over .300 in SEC play (Miller, Mort, Smith, and Ferguson). We are hitting .281 as a team.
- TBA fell to 0-3 on the season.
- Ole Miss' RPI was 18th following last weekend's action against TN. IT HAS FALLEN TO 34 WHICH IS ONE SPOT BELOW MISSISSIPPI STATE.
- David Phillips is batting .182 in SEC play. He hit his fifth home-run of the season on Sunday. His fourth came against Oakland during the Sunday game. That is a gap of 26 games.
- Ole Miss is now 3-3 against the worst teams in the SEC and is 5-5 in its last ten games.
- After a weekend against our hitting, UGA's ERA is now down to 7.95 in conference play (from 8.62).