Ole Miss baseball knocks off No. 3 Texas Tech, 5-4, improves to 2-0

It got hairy at the end, you guys.

But Ole Miss picked up its second top-10 win of the weekend as it knocked off No. 3 Texas Tech at the College Baseball Showdown in Arlington on Sunday.

The 5-4 win over the Red Raiders gave Ole Miss its longest win streak in program history, making the Rebels winners of 18-straight dating back to last season. Gunnar Hoglund got the nod on the bump to start and got into the sixth before allowing a couple home runs, some walks and giving way to the bullpen, but overall, he was solid against an elite team on Sunday.

The Rebels fell behind 2-0 in the second inning before putting up a five-spot of its own, highlighted by Jacob Gonzalez’s first collegiate home run, a two-run laser into right field (editor’s note: I threw a full beer into the air in my home, disgruntled wife and all - worth it). Ole Miss also benefitted from some Texas Tech errors in the frame, but hey, take ‘em where you can get ‘em.

Tech battled back to make it 5-3 heading into the ninth, pushed a run across in the final inning and had the bases loaded with two outs before Braden Forsyth slammed the door shut with a deep fly out to right field. Ole Miss fans were clearly all holding their breath and clenching their unmentionables during this time, but hey, that’s baseball.

Don’t get it twisted: no wins in this gauntlet of a slate were going to be easy, but as of now, Ole Miss sits 2-0 on the weekend with another top-10 opportunity coming tomorrow. Coming out of this weekend with a 2-1 outcome is a big boost to the non-conference strength of schedule for later down the road, so tomorrow the Rebels are playing with house money and ultimately could extend a more than year long winning streak.

We’ll take it. That top-10 matchup comes against No. 9 Texas tomorrow at 3 p.m.

P.S. — Peyton Chatagnier had a dope tag out at second base where he leaped into the air. That’s our lead image on this story because it was v cool.