No. 1 Ole Miss baseball torches No. 9 Texas, 8-1, to close out dominating weekend

Derek Diamond cooked. Trey LaFleur hit a piss-missile home run. The Rebs are back.

Shortly after being crowned the new No. 1 team in the land by Baseball America, Ole Miss completed a sweep of its action in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington with an 8-1 win over the Texas Longhorns.

Ole Miss was ranked No. 6 according to D1Baseball coming into the weekend and will likely be a top-three team, if not No. 1, in that poll come tomorrow morning.

I’m not going to lie—coming into this weekend, I expected the Rebs to take some lumps. I figured they’d win a game or two and lay an egg at least once while shaking off some rust against some of the best teams in the country. I was wrong. This team has now won 19-straight contests dating back to last season and absolutely looks the part early on in 2021.

We knew this team had the potential to be special. We should really believe it now after its trip to Texas.

Focusing on Monday’s game, however, Ole Miss led 1-0 after pushing one across in the top of the first, and that’s the way the score stood until Texas hit a solo shot in the middle innings. The Rebel bats then came back alive, however, pushing across four of their own and leaving some more on the base paths to push the advantage to 5-1. The bats were hot late in the game, and here we are. Trey Lafleur and Jacob Gonzalez hit a home run and a triple respectively in the ninth, and hoopin’ and hollerin’ was done by yours truly.

Also, Jacob Gonzalez made this sick play on defense. We love him, and you should too.

Peyton Chatagnier had a big day, hitting three doubles. He seemed to pull his hamstring on his third installment of the two-bagger, however (pls be okay, Peyton), and hopefully it won’t make him miss any extended time. I wouldn’t be shocked if he sits Wednesday against Arkansas State either way.

Also, Derek Diamond was dope. Outside of giving up the solo home run, he was completely dominant. It speaks volumes that Ole Miss’ third weekend starter is throwing high-90s against top-10 teams. Things you love to see.

Again, it’s early. Baseball schedules are a slog. There will be losses. There will be lumps taken, especially in the SEC. But, right now, this team looks legit, and folks are taking notice around the country.